Restaurants Charging for Bread
A growing number of eateries want your dough for theirs
Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Aug 19, 2009 at 09:00AM
4 Comments
When airlines began charging for meals, we should’ve realized the free lunch as we’d known it was gone for good.
The latest casualty? Gratis bread on restaurant tables.
Plenty of upmarket joints around here—Le Gourmand, Canlis long been in the business of individually delivered rolls. Alright, alright—calls unfortunate attention to my carbo-hoovering habit, yes, but it also reduces waste and keeps costs down for the restaurant. Reasonable.
But the trend now goes further. Anchovies & Olives sets a $2 tab on its Columbia City focaccia bread, served with arbequina olives and great oil. Ditto Boat Street Cafe (only it’s not focaccia, and the olives are Nicoise). At Joule, diners pay $3 for a La Brea Bakery baguette, sliced and warm, with a pot of diner’s choice of cultured, seaweed, or bacon butter.
Sure—these plates include oils and butters, and feature some of the best breads available in these parts. But seeing bread on the menu can still feel nickle-and-dimey—especially when high-end joints like Cafe Juanita still manage to set out a bread basket of variety and quality, without charging a dime.
Or…do they? Because the fact is, restaurants charge for bread whether they make the charge explicit or not. Many would argue for taking the “bread overhead” off the overall cost of dinner, transferring the cost of the bread to the diners who actually want it enough to pay for it.
What do you think, diners? Sick of the regressive bread tax…or hate seeing bread charges on menus?
’Cause this particular diner thinks this trend is here to stay.
Tags: Food Trends in Seattle
This shines a light on an experience I had this weekend: I ordered a $15 cheese plate at Sambar and they gave me and my co-diner 2 skinny, holes slices of baguette each. It was ridiculous. We asked for more and were again offered enough bread for two bites of cheese. Since it would have been embarrassing to ask for a 3rd serving we gave up, and left a giant slab of lovely blue, which we had paid just short of $4 for, on the plate. It was stupid. I can see charging for bread if it’s not a necessary part of the meal—restaurant biz is low margin, I get it. But there are limits.
My first experience with this trend came at Cafe Revo in West Seattle. I was surprised to see bread called out as a separate menu item. I can do without it under normal circumstances. After all, if it’s there, I’ll just eat it and ruin my appetite (and waistline) for what’s to come. But on that particular night, whatever would I use to slop up the soupy remains of my perfectly zesty puttanesca?
I say it’s a good move. I don’t eat mine and always feel bad about the waste. Same goes for chips and salsa, doesn’t it? How many pounds of fried tortillas are wasted per year? And the cost is passed along at some point, so why not just bring it up front and reduce waste at the same time.
No restaurant will ever “take the bread overhead off the overall cost of dinner, transferring the cost of the bread to the diners who actually want it enough to pay for it.” Instead, they will charge extra for bread for those who order it, and continue to charge the rest of us for something we no longer get.
I am troubled on occasion at the waste that uneaten bread (and chips) represents. On the other hand, though, a slice of bread or two gets me to the entree, which is generally 20-30 minutes in coming. Besides, it’s a civilized beginning to the dining experience. The truly excellent restaurants — the ones that welcome their customers, rather than merely tolerating them — will recognize this and make free bread a draw that expands their clientelle.