Sliced Thin from p13 “I had to raise my wholesale prices,” Meyer says. “And retail prices are going to go up too. I just want to sharpen my pencil as much as I can and not appear that I’m goug- ing anybody. Literally every single thing costs more. From plastic wrap to parchment paper to almond milk. Everything.” But it’s not just the baking business. It’s every business. Our local restaurants, bak- ers, brewers and pitmasters are all being hit with of higher costs while riding this out. Is it even a ride? Or is it the new normal? W hen Rene Ramirez quit his job driving a forklift to run his small barbecue business 225 BBQ full time, it was a big gamble. He was leaving regular pay and benefits for the notoriously unpredictable food business. But he wanted to be his own boss. Besides, he had a pretty good customer base at the two spots where he parked his trailer on the weekends. Do- ing both jobs was exhausting. At the time when he gave notice, in late 2019, brisket cost around $2.90 a pound. Now, Ramirez starts most mornings around 2 a.m. He just sleeps at his trailer on mornings he has to cook. His first task is to heat his pit. He stacks post oak in the offset smoker. Around 4 a.m., he starts loading up briskets, placing about a dozen slabs of meat at different spots inside the pit. Around 6 a.m., when the stores start opening, he heads off in his truck to buy fresh produce and supplies for the day: limes, tortillas, cheese. “Everything has gone up,” Ramirez says. Increases across the board eat into his slim margins, from gas to the price of brisket, which has almost doubled in price since the day he quit his day job. His latest invoice came in at $5.09 a pound. “In 2020, our one meat plate was $14. Now, it’s $17 just so we can make some profit,” Ramirez says. Are customers noticing these price hikes? You bet. Black Box Intelligence tracks online comments concerning restaurants. Early this year, it found there were fewer positive mentions of “specials” at full-service restau- rants. Plus, there were more negative men- tions of the restaurant experience, including “not worth it.” In casual dining spots, there were also fewer positive mentions of “rea- sonable prices.” Coupled with that, diners are mentioning restaurants being short-staffed at a record clip. Black Box found the last couple of weeks of December “ there were steep weekly increases in mentions of ‘short- staffed.’” The publication Restaurant Business noted that “menu price inflation hit a 39- year high in November as soaring costs for labor and food led restaurants around the country to increase their charges to cus- tomers.” They point mostly to a labor shortage that has led to wage increases as the culprit. Meyer says she’s paying higher wages 14 14 across the board. “After the pandemic, it wasn’t even a question. You have to pay at least $15 an hour now except for possibly an intern, but even then.” Mike Brooks Above: Rene Ramirez juggles the rising cost of brisket at 225 BBQ; Left: Butter is the ingredient that runs Bisous Bisous. “The pandemic has forced many small busi- nesses, like some of our favorite restaurants, to shut down entirely,” he says. ”Some of those that have remained open are barely covering their costs. If the increased infla- tion continues, those rising costs may be the final nail in the coffin for some small busi- ness owners.” W Mike Brooks As much as restaurants have endured the past two years, particularly independently owned restaurants, how much more can their businesses take? Dean Stansel, an economist at SMU Cox’s Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom, says that some of those costs can be passed along to their customers in the form of higher prices, “but there are limits to how much more consumers are willing to pay. This has been particularly problematic for small businesses like restaurants because they lack the ability to get the same volume discounts on their inputs that larger busi- nesses can.” That has long been a rallying cry in local social media posts and various outlets. Chipo- tle can endure the hikes. But if you want your local restaurants to stay around, they need your business now, higher prices or not. For both Meyer and Ramirez, it’s a thin line between turning customers away and making money. Some decisions make them- selves. When the cost of pistachio paste went from $55 to $178, Meyer took her green-swirled pistachio croissants off the menu. But when a tight labor market de- manded $15 an hour for employees, she ad- justed. Even her workhorse — the humble blueberry muffin — is causing headaches. The price of blueberries has gone from $28 a case to $53. She’s spent time carefully poring over ingredients and menus to see where she can trim costs: what pastries to keep and which to let go. “This was going to be the year I was go- ing to pay myself,” Meyer says. Stansel, who points at expansionary monetary policy at the federal level as part of the problem, doesn’t offer a rosy outlook. im Bens is co-owner of Lakewood Brewing Co., which opened in 2011, one of the first craft brewers on the local scene. At first, selling kegs and hosting tastings at the brewery was the goal. More than a decade later, they’ve taken their little brewery far; cans of their lager and Temptress line the shelves of gro- cery stores and are commonly found at bars and restaurants across North Texas. Over- all, Bens says, they use more than one mil- lion cans a year, which is about five truckloads, all packed with 200,000 cans. When bars and restaurants shut down early in the pandemic, breweries and soda drink manufacturers moved their inven- tory from kegs and spouts to cans. This created a shortage of aluminum, which sent the price soaring. Things got so tight at one point Bens bought cans from a dis- continued line and slapped his labels over theirs. When Stansel talks about the small places getting hurt the most, craft breweries are a perfect example; it doesn’t take an economist to figure out who gets a better deal on tight inventories, Miller Lite or Lakewood Brewing. Bens says the cost of his cans is up 70 to 100%. MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 FEBRUARY 17–23, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com
