Ina Pinkney of Ina's (Photo: Taken from Ina's Restaurant web site)
This just dropped in the mailbag from "breakfast queen" Ina Pinkney of Ina's in response to her quote—"It would actually be better for me to give that person a dollar to not eat in my restaurant"—that ran in the Chicago Tribune today:
"When (Chicago Tribune writer) Monica (Eng) heard me say that, she was interested in exactly what it cost me to put out that plate of eggs and potatoes.
We showed her the table top....what it costs to wash the the plates, flatware and glassware, put outthe bread, butter, napkin, table paper and what it cost for the eggs (which went from $11/case to $27/case and now is around $20/case) and potatoes which are twice the price they were a month ago.
Oh and did I mention a fuel surcharge on EVERY delivery?
Add to that the labor for the kitchen, server and busser and you can see that it's isn't just about the 2 eggs and potatoes for $5.49.
There's an intrinsic value to that plate of food and I can't charge more, which means that I'm losing money on some dishes if the customer doesn't order a coffee/espresso drink or juice.
These are really hard times for us and I wanted people to know what goes into just such a plate."
