Objects on Your Plate May Be Smaller Than They Appear

Video

Shrunken Portions

Video from the Atlantic City Convention Center, on April 3rd, where food vendors were pitching their products to restaurant owners. The theme: value, value, value. The price of everything a chef needs is soaring, so there was a lot of talk about to how scale back portion sizes, as subtly as possible.

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Another tactic that's gaining favor: Spell out the price instead of using a number, because it's easier to part with thirty-four dollars than $34. Hypothetically, anyway.

All of these concepts, Mentzer says, have been around for years, but more restaurateurs than ever are putting them to use. It's not just that the prices of flour, corn, cream and other ingredients have shot up. More people who dine out are watching their dollars -- buying two appetizers, or splitting an entree. The buzzword in the restaurant business today is "value," which usually means finding ways to entice diners to spend more by giving them what sounds like a bargain.

This, say restaurant consultants, is why nearly all the mid-priced dining chains now peddle a build-your-own-sampler deal. At Applebee's, it's called "Ultimate Trios" and for about $13.99 -- the price varies in different parts of the country -- you get to choose three appetizer-size portions from a list of items like buffalo wings and mini-cheeseburgers. (Bennigan's has a similar deal for $10.99, billed as an "economical way to stuff your face.") The point is to yield larger checks -- and as long as the restaurant keeps its food cost below roughly 32 percent, it's all gravy.

Catering to value diners is what brought Conley Ward's Steakhouse to Rastelli Foods last week. The restaurant, for years among the most expensive in Delaware, is about to rebrand itself from top to bottom, with a new name (CW Harborside), a more casual interior (bye-bye, tablecloths) and a menu with more dinner entrees in the low $30s range and fewer in the mid-$40s range.

"I've got people coming for birthdays and anniversaries," says co-owner John Conley. "That's twice a year. I need them twice a month."

Both the steaks and the prices are getting smaller. The 14-ounce New York strip filet that cost $36 without any side dishes will become a 12-ounce strip that costs $34 and comes with potato and vegetables. Roehm, the Rastelli consultant, grills a couple of the chops to see what they'll look like once they're out of the kitchen.

"The thickness is different," Conley says, looking at a medium-rare 18-ounce T-bone, which will take the place of the 20-ounce now on the menu. "But you still get good plate coverage."

By the time he leaves, he has the outline for a whole new restaurant, which is basically his old restaurant if it turned sideways and sucked in its gut. And took off the tie. It's a scaled-back place for an era of scaling back. Conley is optimistic enough, though he jokes on the way out the door that he might simply be in the wrong business.

"If we were smart," he says, "we'd raze the place and start growing corn."