High-End Buffet?

[acidboy]

I've heard nothing but praises for the Sunday champagne brunch at Nicholini's in The Conrad in Hongkong

 

[greg_atlanta]

It's a smart move for restaurants. Minimal increase in food costs (very few pig out), no spoiled food (somebody will eat it if you put it out), faster turnover (no time wasted with patrons sitting at tables waiting for food), and lower labor costs (easier to cook in large batches). "Turn and burn."

 

[Dakota rube]

1. "High-end" buffet: wtf is that? Do you mean "high-priced" buffet? I don't understand how a buffet can be high end?
2. Buffet, as greg_atl said, has got to be a fabulously profitable gig for restaurants. And, unlike most eating establishments, buffets LOVE busses!
3. There is a (definitely NOT high-end) buffet right outside my office window. One dude went in every day for a week at lunchtime and came out almost exactly 90 minutes later AND BLEW CHUNKS all over the sidewalk. He just stood there and made street pizza! A technicolor yawn!

 

[stevejobs]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

1. "High-end" buffet: wtf is that? Do you mean "high-priced" buffet? I don't understand how a buffet can be high end?

See OP about Belliago's buffet. Moreover, the establishment would have an upscale ambience in addition to serving quality food.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

2. Buffet, as greg_atl said, has got to be a fabulously profitable gig for restaurants. And, unlike most eating establishments, buffets LOVE busses!

Can you explain that? I don't see how it's profitable. Most restaurants charge between 15-30 bucks for a steak (regular restaurants, not super high-end), right? Then 3 bucks for a free-refill pop, 8 for an appetizer, and 8 for dessert.... so that's around 30/person for one plate.

How, then, is it profitable to charge someone 15 bucks for their meal and a drink, when they can have the equivalent of 5 appetizers, 3 steaks, 2 desserts, and 10 drinks?

I understand that the original steak doesn't cost them 15-30 to actually make, but I always thought that buffets were walking thin ice on the almost too cheap line.

 

[Dakota rube]

stevejobs: By definition, isn't a buffet where you serve yourself? Plucking food from a selection of both hot and cold dishes? That's not high-end. It may be high-priced. And the food might even be palatable. But not high-end. Unless you mean high-end like a high-priced hooker. Then maybe. But still: you're serving yourself! With food that is lying under heat lamps, or steaming over cans of sterno. And carrying it back to your table. Oh. I see. Its at the Bellagio. Oh, that makes it high-end. Yeah. Vegas and all.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

kwilk got in between two posts.

Blame me for your problems, but don't even offer any help to my confusion! I see how it is!

 

[Dakota rube]

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Can you explain that? I don't see how it's profitable.
Its been awhile since I looked at any restaurant's books, but IIRC food costs and labor costs in a normal operation make up about 50-55% of a retail price point. A buffet takes nearly half the labor cost out of the equation immediately. No waitstaff. And what staff you have is cheap: just bus boys.

Adding 10% to the net of each plate sold is the difference between a restaurant losing money or making an insane amount of money.

The concept I'm really amused at is the Mongolian grill where you "build" your entree, add all the special ingredients and secret sauces and then they dump it all onto the same hot grill as the food for the assholes in front and behind you! Like the flavors stay all segregated!

I hate any restaurant where I have to handle my food before I consume it. It reminds me of going to the cafeterias when I was a little kid, and eating out of those compartmentalized trays.

 

[Dakota rube]

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Blame me for your problems, but don't even offer any help to my confusion! I see how it is!
We should just IM.


I'm kidding.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

We should just IM.


I'm kidding.

Do people your age do that new fangled IM stuff?

 

[stevejobs]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

stevejobs: By definition, isn't a buffet where you serve yourself? Plucking food from a selection of both hot and cold dishes?

That's not high-end.

It may be high-priced. And the food might even be palatable. But not high-end.

Unless you mean high-end like a high-priced hooker. Then maybe. But still: you're serving yourself! With food that is lying under heat lamps, or steaming over cans of sterno. And carrying it back to your table.

Serving yourself shouldn't be a problem. I'd rather walk a few steps and burn some energy if the costs that go into the wait staff can be transfered to other aspects of the restaurant.

Moreover, it is something to differentiate yourself if you are a proprietor--win business anyway you can.

 

[Dakota rube]

^How about just provide a fabulous meal in an impecable setting with incredible service? Buffets (regardless of price point) are just the flavors of the month. I think six have opened in my city in the last two months; every one with great fanfare. And every one has turned out to be just a slightly re-branded heap of warmed over glop.

 

[Dakota rube]

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Do people your age do that new fangled IM stuff?

Sort of reminds me of the party line we had when we first got a telephone.

 

[LabelKing]

There's something always kind of downmarket about buffets. All that bustling humanity in front of food does something else.

 

[Dakota rube]

^ Especially when that humanity is sneezing on and pawing through the food.