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Posted Mar 27, 2007, 3:56 AM
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BANNED
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: San Francisco & Tucson
Posts: 24,088
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EastBayHardCore
I'm aware that restaurants are businesses, thank you. I was pointing out the fact that there will be a 24 HOUR Italian restaurant in the building. It sounded a bit intriguing, that's all. Thanks for the cute comment though.
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You're very welcome (and I'm sorry if my attempt to provoke a clarification seemed challenging--I thought stating the obvious to everyone including, no doubt, you was a gentle way to do it). It does sound intriguing and goes along with an earlier article they had published:
Quote:
Eateries bite into the night
Restaurants develop taste for late dining
San Francisco Business Times - March 16, 2007
by Ryan Tate
More San Francisco restaurants are staying open into the wee hours of the morning, but they're not necessarily making much extra money for their effort.
Late-night restaurant owners are hit especially hard by the city's rising minimum wage, since they are much more likely to pay overtime, which is one-and-a-half usual wages. With some shifts lasting until 3:30 a.m., they must also make a special effort to retain staff.
Pooped-out a.m. diners, meanwhile, do not tend to order as much food or even as much high-margin alcohol as dinner customers.
"In total, it probably is a wash," said Laurence Jossel of Nopa, the 11-month-old Western Addition hotspot that keeps its kitchen open until 1 a.m. every night. "Some people start this and fade out, because it's a commitment -- in terms of time, in terms of lots of things, especially financially."
But more and more restaurateurs are hoping the investment will pay off. For many, Jossel included, there is the immediate pride of impressing colleagues in the industry, a built-in customer base for any high-end restaurant that stays open especially late. Such visibility can lend buzz and credibility to a restaurant.
Then there's the future. As more restaurants build up late-night track records, word spreads among diners, who start inviting friends and showing up in larger numbers. Hotels and taxi drivers have begun referring more tourists and business travelers as they learn of reliable destinations.
All the new business helps offset costs for existing late-night restaurants, whose profits in turn encourage new entrants, beginning the cycle anew.
A new crop of highrise condominiums is bringing new residents to town with money to burn and, often, no children to look after. Even more condo projects are on the way, a potential pot of gold for restaurateurs who invest in building up their credibility now.
For whatever motivation, a growing number of high-end restaurants seems to be entering the late-night fray. Examples beyond Nopa include Straits San Francisco, which serves dinner until midnight and has begun keeping the bar open until 2 a.m. some nights; Salt House in SoMa, with weekend dinner service to midnight; Alembic, a Haight-Ashbury whisky bar serving up an ambitious food menu until midnight every night; and Oola, whose SoMa-district kitchen is open until 1 a.m. five nights a week.
Older offerings include Absinthe and Zuni in the Civic Center area, both serving food until midnight some nights, Yuet Lee in Chinatown and the much-loved Globe in the financial district.
The mix tends to change as chefs and owners jump in and out of the long hours.
The key, said Oola chef-owner Ola Fendert, is to have a small dining room, so that the fixed costs of a large staff do not eat you alive while you wait for word to get out about your restaurant.
His dining room was quiet most nights for nearly a year, until a concerted effort to spread word among hotel concierges, Fendert said. With room for just 45 diners, his restaurant can be comfortably run with a staff of only 10. Now he reaches close to 200 covers some nights, though 170 is more typical for, say, a Friday night.
Alembic also fits that small description. Salt House, though, holds 75, Straits close to 105 and Nopa 110.
Another critical step, Fendert said, was keeping staff expectations clear. He has had people leave due to the hours, including one who said the hours, which can stretch to 3:30 a.m. some nights at Oola, were interfering with her college classes.
Fendert said, "I tell the staff, 'We're late night. We stay here until 3 in the morning, if you don't like it, tough.' "
At Absinthe, the service staff appreciated the earlier close when the restaurant started closing its bar at midnight most weekdays instead of 2 a.m. a few years ago, operations manager Jeff Hollinger said.
Revenue went down for a while as a result of the changes, Hollinger said, but ramped back up as regulars made a point of coming in earlier. Late-night profits are decent but "not as high as you might think," Hollinger said.
"People aren't drinking as much or as fast -- they are winding down."
Source: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/...ml?t=printable
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The BizTimes seems interested in the 24-hourization (love that neologism!) of San Francisco as am I.
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