The Restaurant Con

In all the lazy media noise leading up to the new year, one story caught my attention. It's about a small NYC restaurant chain called Tad's that is nearly extinct. They used to be all over the place back before I was born, and there was one off Union Square when I was in high school, but now there is but one left, in mid-town. It s a restaurant concept that in all my days of culinary school, it would never occur to me -- the budget steak house.

Steak houses were anointed as money spinners in class because even though the menu was limited and such high end prices don't end up being for the masses, the mark-up on everything (think sides and drinks) are so high that you end up doing pretty well in that realm. The idea of Tad's runs contradictory to that -- it moves LOTS of cheap meat, fast, and things are sold in combos that destroy possible high mark ups on sides and sodas.

Cheap meat, post-Tad's

But the part that really resonated with me was how the author summed up the shift in the (restaurant) culture -- going from a short con to a long con.

As I ate, I experienced a certain elation, as did my lunch companion. And I wondered why I was so happy at Tad’s. I realized that it was the short con, of old America.
Anyone familiar with con-man movies knows the difference between the short con and the long con. The short con is a cheap steak, but extra for onions. The long con is artisan hamburger buns. The long con is artisan anything, it’s the big lie that special, expensive food can impart sophistication, instill morality and forestall death. The short con is the carnival midway, the long con is the totalistic impulse towards ideology, it’s Whole Foods and, ultimately Jonestown.


One con or another is unavoidable. Every nickel, on its way to becoming a dime, must pass through some trickery. Until the Rapture, there will always be opposition and a cash register to help us navigate it.
Tad’s way—the short con—may seem unpleasant or confrontational to people used to the cloying smarm of our current slate of Olympian “established brands.” But I find it less insulting.
At Tad’s, there are no adjectives on the walls, no promises that the cows have been “grass-fed” or that their flesh is “char-sizzled,” and no aspirational exhortations that you be a better you. It’s just a steak.
Tad’s Broiled Steaks may or may not make you a better you. But it will fill you up. And they will leave you alone, in almost every sense, which is nice. The steak may or may not be juicy. They never said it would be. But they'll ladle on some extra juice, no extra charge.

In a way, expensively produced food like cow flesh sold cheap IS a long con -- cattle prices (and grain and sugar prices) propped up artificially by government largess makes steak (and many other processed, unhealthy foods) artificially cheap, leading our diets away from "expensive" veg and whole foods and towards cheap, high-processed, health-harming but profitable dreck.

Hey Ratso, let's go to Tad's!

Tad's is a relic of a cheaper, down-on-it's luck city, as well as of a culture that still found novelty and excitement in cheap food done good. The long con of small batch artisanal everything has been upon us for a while, but it comes at a price. Literally -- who can afford a $20 baggie of granola? As the wage gap widens and more and more of us find us on the poor side of things, I wouldn't be surprised if the cheaper short-con came back in fashion (think fast food, minus the Chipotle-pretense) and Whole Foods devolves into something cheaper.

WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2812

Not as dramatic a drop  in increase of consumption and increase in vegetables as I hoped, but better to ease in than freak out.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2780

SLEPT: 10pm - 6am, 8 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1 : 10:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2 : 1pm, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 3:30pm, beef patty, momma salad, tomato soup, health salad, 710 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, French bread pizzas, poppa salad with dressing, 1060 cal

EVENIGN SNACK: 7:30pm, popcorn,  +/- 400 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2750

SLEPT: 10pm-6am,  8hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am,  iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, Greek yogurt with honey, almonds, vanilla,  450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, steamed string beans, lentil curry, chicken meatballs, pickles,  680 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, lemon sole, asparagus, poppa salad with dressing, 750 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, peanut butter pretzels, rice crispies and milk, +/-400 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2870

SLEPT: 9:30pm-6am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 10:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 12:15am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 3pm, bacon, poppa salad with dressing,  440 cal

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, momma salad, 100 cal

PM SNACK: 6:15pm, streetza, +/- 300 cal

DINNER: 7:45pm, Chipotle Burrito, 920 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, chocolate chip banana bread, +/- 500 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 3320

SLEPT: 11:30pm-4:30am, 5hrs

AM SNACK: 4:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 11am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 12 noon, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm, shrimp and mushrooms with oyster sauce and shiritaki noodles, poppa salad with dressing, 550 cal

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, momma salad and cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, cashews, 250 cal

DINNER: 5:45pm, mixed fried perogies, saur kraut, +/- 800 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 8pm, peanut butter pretzels, nutella, +/-800cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 660 cal
FRIDAY COUNT: 2340

SLEPT: 9:30pm-6:30am, 9hrs

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BIKE SNACK: 12:30pm, homemade granola bar, 370 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 2:15pm, Greek yogurt with honey, almonds, vanilla,  450 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, veggie straws, 270 cal

DINNER 1: 5:15pm, fish and chips, hot dog, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal

DINNER 2: 9pm, steak, potatoes, cheese & tomatoes, bread and oil, olives, 1 beer, +/- 750 cal

Money can't buy love, but it can buy food and shelter.

When the Swedish Chef saw his first paycheck...

Here is a story about how there are too few cooks to go around to all the nice restaurants that have opened up in foodie-centric urban centers over the past five years or so.

Whether you call them aspirational or ambitious or chef-driven, these are the restaurants that lead the food world, and all of them report that hiring is a pain point. Up the scale from fast food or casual chains like Applebee’s, they range from seasonal cafes and wine bars to the priciest and most heralded establishments. Patrick O’Connell, the chef and owner at the Inn at Little Washington in Virginia, said even the prestigious Relais & Châteaux properties no longer attract enough talent; most of them now have a full-time recruiter on the payroll.

I went through culinary school, at not insignificant expense, and ended up running a kitchen for a year in a new restaurant, where part of my responsibilities were to staff it. The problem is kind of obvious and baked into the industry: long hours, few days off, supervisors/owners who will exploit you without blinking,  hard repetitive work, uncomfortable working conditions, co-workers who either 

1. don't really speak English 
2. have drug/mental issues 
3. can't do the work very well 
4. students/hobos who are just briefly passing through or 
5. all of the above.  

The #1 prime reason that allows the labor pool to stay shallow and muddy: low, low pay, usually not far from minimum wage.

It's easy to defend the industry by saying, "but that's the way it's always been!" True, it's always paid little and engages in a militaristic culture to engender loyalty and team work. However, everything around it has changed.

• Cities are a lot less livable for poor people with increasing income inequality. It's not that you can't have a "lifestyle" on a cook's pay in NYC as the NYT article says, but you literally can not both house and feed yourself at the same time on a cook's pay.
• Restaurant food is cheaper (accounting for inflation) and more ubiquitous than ever before. The price have not kept up, and the pressure on profits has to land somewhere.
• Quicker communication via the Internet and competition for a limited work force has made it nonsensical for a young cook to settle for bad pay and bad treatment.

This is a situation that can not continue unless something gives. NYC Restaurateur Danny Meyer recently announced that he will be banning tipping from his restaurants, and raise prices accordingly. Putting aside that the tradition of tipping is a boon to douche bags who like to lord over their servers and allows the industry to not pay their staff, it has also caused a huge differential in the pay between front and back of house in restaurants. It is illegal to share tips, but if it's part of the price of the meal, the restaurant can now move some of that money to the back of house. Servers will not have to grovel to customers, but work for who they are supposed to work for -- the restaurant. Any dim-wit who claims service will suffer because of this move is wrong. People do good work because a) they want to do good for their self-esteem and their team and b) they get paid for it. Sorry, Idiot Douche who won't get to determine a server's pay on the fly!

The current state of America's chefs and customers.

But it cuts to a bigger more problematic trend. Food is undervalued, there are too many restaurants, and the traditional foodways of previous generations have been eroded, perhaps past the point of return. I have friends who eat out every day, order delivery when they don't, purchase prepared foods to zap at home, and find cooking anything other than a bowl of cereal as too much of a hassle. My mom was a horrible cook, but bottom line she was a cook. Part of my motivation in attending culinary school was to cook professionally before I quickly burned out from the low pay, long hours and insane boss, but another part of me wanted to learn how to feed myself and my children, a knowledge base that was not communicated to me like it was from my great grandmother to my grandmother (who made the most knee-weakening matzoh brei imaginable.) 

The solution is  what Danny Meyer has figured out: raise the damn prices, pay people what they need and deserve, and accept potentially lower profits and/or go out of business. With fewer cheap restaurants to serve us, perhaps a few people will have to clear their ovens of stored stuff and figure out how to cook something beyond instant ramen.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2786

In my mind this was a good eating week, but looking at the average, I could have been a little bit more conservative. Guess we'll see what the scale says next week to see how hard I need to push against this perception.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2730

SLEPT: 10pm-6am, 8 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST: noon, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2:30pm, beef patty, chicken soup, momma salad, health salad, pickles, 770 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm, flounder, asparagus,  poppa salad with dressing, 650 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7pm popcorn, +/- 400 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, almond butter & chocolate syrup, +/- 300 cal
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TUESDAY COUNT: 3180

SLEPT: 9:30pm-12am, 3am-5:30am 5hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45 am,  iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, chicken meatballs, lentil curry, steamed string beans, pickles, 700 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad 100 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, beef lomein,  poppa salad with dressing, +/- 1000 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, pocky x4, 760 cal, 8/10
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BIKE CREDIT: 730 cal
WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2680

SLEPT: 8:30pm-12am, 3am-6am 6.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK: 10:30am, homemade granola bar, 300 cal

LUNCH: 1:15pm, bacon, poppa salad, 440cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK:  5:30pm, cashews, 250 cal

DINNER: 8:30pm, assorted fancy Japanese food, +/- 1500 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2780

SLEPT: 11:30pm-4am, 4.5 hours

AM SNACK: 4:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, Fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, beef patty, momma salad, veggie straws, 760 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, poppa salad, cheezits, 410 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, scallops, risotto, brussel sprouts, cake, +/- 1000 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT:2560

SLEPT: 10pm-7am, 9 hrs

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, granola with whole milk, +/- 450 cal

LUNCH: 3:30pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat toast, momma salad, pickle, 650 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, hijiki tofu patty, shrimp tempura, cake, +/- 1000 cal

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, slice of pizza, +/- 300 cal