[Xu.Vi]

Originally Posted by 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.

Agreed. The last restaurant I worked in closes during DoV for vacation because the chef knows its not worth participating in a restaurant that seats only 52 and pulls in most $$ from their wine selection.