Todd Hull
Head chef Ignacio Barquera of Relish restaurant in Roswell discusses the afternoons specials with Co-manager John Zuras.
By Joan Durbin
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When financial times are tough, restaurants can feel the public’s pain.
“Eating out is the first thing people cut down on in a struggling economy,” said Kelly Hornbuckle, marketing and communications manager for the Georgia Restaurant Association.
As the economy has continued to sour, the association’s CEO, Ron Wolf, said the effects are being felt throughout the industry. “There’s been a sizable economic impact, but it’s not necessarily consistent across the board.”
Fast food eateries haven’t been affected that much, he said, but casual dining establishments are feeling the pinch.
“The top end establishments, in many markets, have been less susceptible” to the economic downturn, Wolf said.
With north Fulton’s affluent demographics, a severe drop-off in the restaurant business doesn’t spear to be in the cards. “I don’t have statistics. All my evidence is anecdotal,” Wolf said, “but I would be surprised if a well-funded, well-operated north Fulton restaurant was hurting.”
He cites a recent anniversary dinner with his wife at Luciano’s, a moderately upscale Italian restaurant in Johns Creek.
“The place was literally packed and it had a wait. You would not be able to tell by the number of people dining there that there were any economic strains,” he said.
Terri Harof, a Roswell resident whose company C3 Marketing Group specializes in the hospitality industry, said north Fulton residents are still dining out. “But people don’t just flock into restaurants like they used to. They’re still spending the money, but the decisions they make on where to spend it are based on whether they’ve heard great things about a place or if they’ve had a good experience there.”
Londzell’s Jazz and Blues Café in Roswell opened a year ago and is doing so well it recently expanded its menu and its kitchen, she said. But Pisces Seafood and Jazz in Alpharetta closed its doors last week after being open just seven months.
Both restaurants offered very good food and great entertainment. The difference? Ms. Haroff said she thinks it may have had something to do with menu prices.
Pisces “was an expensive restaurant,” she said. “For entrees, $30 was not uncommon. They found that people were thinking twice about spending that kind of money.”
The owners are “rethinking their business model,” she said, and may reopen.
Cost concerns aren’t limited to customers. According to Wolf, restaurant owners are seeing their food costs spiral. “It’s the biggest spike in 27 years,” he said.
Andy Badgett, chef and owner of two Roswell eateries — Relish, a casual upscale dining spot, and Fickle Pickle, a popular sandwich shop — said he’s deciding how to deal with that problem right now.
“The Fickle Pickle is doing great. We’re above last year’s revenues, but with our food costs going up our prices will probably have to go up,” he said.
At Relish, which has been open just one year, summer business has been a bit slow, particularly in July, Badgett said.
Since business also dipped in July at Asher, a fine dining restaurant Badgett owned for several years, Badgett said he thinks the drop-off may be due in large part to people’s summer vacations rather than the economy.
“We’re starting to see an increase just in the last two weeks, so I think by this fall we will have jumped back up to where we need to be,” he said.
The state of the economy isn’t stopping him from making capital investments in Relish, such as expanding the bar space or considering improvements to the restaurant’s acoustics.