[westopher]

I'll give you my point of view, and while not necessarily always the case, I can tell you it is very often the case. February is dead, dead as fuck in restaurants. The people that they need to fill the seats with are not their normal clientele. You do what you can to survive. There are SO MANY restaurants in vancouver, and lots of them can barely scrape through the january february lull. The people that commonly come out for dine out are the people that go out to eat once or twice a year, and believe it or not, those are a lot of people. You wont see them again til next year in the restaurant. You get their money, throw it into the bill account thats overdrawn and hope that enough of them keep you afloat. After dine out, the regulars bank accounts have replenished after christmas/vacations and the customers you see once a month or more are back filling your seats, and you don't worry til next january. There is no physical possible way that most independent restaurants can offer the same food quality for half the prices, because margins are so slim, you'd never make it out alive.

I understand the purpose of a marketing budget, but it can't outweigh the profits. Also, the volume, as well as the low cost mean there is no way the restaurant will be adequately staffed, therefore, no way the quality of service will be there. Dine outs motto should be "asses in the seats, some food on the plates" I've ran kitchens in dineout and I'm still expected to meet my labour costs, yet I'm supposed to sell 1.5x the food at .75 the price. I don't hit labour? I take the heat. My only options are put out a weaker product or run a kitchen that loses money. Owners don't take to kindly to a kitchen losing money. Also, I have to hit food cost. Either portions get small, or food gets lower quality. People rip places to shreds over leaving full, yet most people that come out won't notice the difference between good food and ok food. Unfortunately, the good customer that wants to try something new and appreciates good food suffers so we can fill the seats with just anyone with a wallet. Its not every restaurant with this mindset, but lots of independent restaurants it has to be.

That being said, the restaurant I'm at doesn't do dine out, and we will hopefully still be full every night as we have been but getting a great clientele and tons of regulars.