••• Tyger Tyger will return in November, and it promises to be “new, clean and green.” If that means more vegetables, I’m all for it, even if the weeping brisket was a dish to remember. N.B. For those new to the area, the Southeast Asian restaurant preceded XO Burger in the Funk Zone building that’s also home to Dart Coffee Co.
••• Rare Society has introduced happy hour “on the patio or at the bar from 3-5 p.m. for a special menu of steakhouse favorites like the steak ‘n frites, dry aged burger, and oysters. Sip on $10 cocktails and $10 wines and beers. Seating is first-come, first serve.”
••• We generally buy all our herbs at the farmers’ market, but sometimes you need to look for them at a supermarket, and Whole Foods and Bristol Farms have meager stock. So I was delighted to discover that Gelson’s picks up the slack. The other day, the store had all of the usual suspects, plus marjoram, savory, sorrel, and chervil.
••• “As the new owner of Corktree Cellars—a Carpinteria wine [bar?] & bistro, tucked into a cozy spot on Linden Avenue—Andre Jackson wants pay tribute to the café’s past by bringing back some old favorites, while also expanding into new territories.” —Coastal View News
••• “Vega Vineyard & Farm, a new working winery, farm and events venue on a historic Santa Barbara County ranch that most recently served as the home of Mosby Winery & Vineyards, unveiled its food menu, farm stand and indoor/outdoor tasting areas on Oct. 5.” —805 Foodie
••• “Rory’s Place in Ojai added a 2.9% surcharge for using a credit card,” emailed J. “Have you ever seen that before?” Not at a restaurant; it’s more of a gas station thing. I don’t know whether the actual menu mentions the surcharge [Update: it does], but the one online doesn’t. The only places I see it disclosed are on Resy when—or more like if—you click “read more” under the “Need to Know” section and then in the window that opens after you’re reserved. Seeing as how uncommon this practice is at restaurants, Rory’s ought to be more forthright about it. And if they’re hell-bent on making the point about credit-card fees, it would feel a lot less like a hidden upcharge if they raised the prices a bit—adding a dollar to a $35 entrée would cover the credit card fee—and offered a discount to anyone who pays cash. UPDATE: K. points out that Chase Restaurant on State Street also adds a 3% credit-card surcharge.
••• Bree’osh now has challah (in plain and sesame varieties) every Friday.
················
Sign up for the Siteline email newsletter for the freshest food news in town.
I go out to eat 3-4 times a week and I talk to restaurant, managers and owners and more often than not hear just how difficult it is to keep their margins in line. I personally would not mind if a restaurant is going to add a 3% credit card fee to my bill. All they are doing is actually passing on the charge that the credit card company charges the restaurant for processing that credit card.
Specially if it’s posted on their menu and make you aware before you pay.
Erik I am interested in hearing your opinion on this ?
I don’t have any issue with the credit-card fee being passed on to consumers, but I don’t think a note on the menu is enough—it’s too late at that point, because you either have the cash on you or you don’t. In the case of Rory’s, and this is just my opinion, I think it should be announced more frequently and more prominently: on the online menu, above the fold on the Resy page, and in the email that confirms the reservation. Even then, as I already wrote, why not raise the prices a hair and offer a discount to anyone who pays cash?
Thank you for sharing your opinion. Would it be possible to ask your readers? I’m very curious.
Thanks!
R.
Raise prices across the board, offer a 3% cash discount.
Here’s a different perspective for you. Many restaurants are beginning to convert and add a processing fee to the final bill. This is happening to cover inflationary food costs of over 30% and it’s happening everywhere. This is a thing that is getting a lot of momentum here in town especially. If you logically look at credit cards, they are used to carry debt. As a business owner let’s say you sell $100 in food, the credit card companies take 3% on average, so that’s $3 that they’re paying because a customer wants to take on debt. Why should the business owner have to pay for someone else assuming debt. If you extrapolate the $3 over tens of thousands of dollars over the month, it’s a big number over the span of a year. The state of California recently started allowing business to tack this processing fee into the bill and recoup it from the customer. So you make the point to raise prices across the board. This just passes the processing fee costs onto everyone whether you pay cash or credit, then your customers who pay cash are covering the debt cost of the credit card users, doesn’t seem fair. Passing the credit card fee onto people who use debt as a form of payment is a fair way to allow the cash paying customers to pay the fair price as well as not gouge the business operator the debt credit fee over the span of a year.
Maybe the banks should stop passing this “fee” to their customers (restaurants)? Banks make plenty of money simply banking. The fees are ridiculous.
Exactly, Christine!!! And didn’t we bail out the banks once already via our tax dollars?!!? Scheisters…..
It is starting to be a new trend where many places don’t take cash at all (Glen Annie for example). I know a lot of people who don’t carry cash around only credit cards. Many not these credit cards have “cash back” on things like dining. So, I guess it can be a wash sometimes.
Rori’s, which I love….. also charges $1.00 extra on
Hand Packed pints. Weird, because some flavors don’t come in pre-packed pints.
Charging for CC fees is odd, clunky, and feels hostile to the customer. It’s an established cost of doing business that any operator should be able to anticipate and account for in a pricing model. We’d consider it absurd to charge for, say, the restroom – providing facilities is a cost of doing business and factored into the model. Why not just raise prices at a place like Rory’s? I suspect the real issue is ongoing inflation of the materials and labor necessary to run a restaurant operation and Rory’s not wanting to raise prices so trying to find savings elsewhere. But customers are educated. We know the environment is inflationary. And if we’re really talking about 3%, who is going to complain? Why not net an additional 3% across all of your customers, instead of just covering costs for those who pay with a card. Just a weird strategy overall. You can also bet I am not going out of my way to get cash for a 3% savings. Even on a $300 bill that’s all of 9 bucks that would require me to take a trip to an ATM.
On website & advertising all they need to say is” Cash Prefered “ up fee of 3% for credit cards.
Communication is all that’s needed.
Nobody is a mind reader.
This 3% fee is part of doing business. If they don’t want to incur such cost then run a cash only business like some places here in town do.
Passing this dumb fee to the customers in times where the price of everything is going up is absurd. There are places where they are automatically adding 20% gratuity to a check(I’m looking at you Sama Sama) to subsidize for the lower wages they’re paying their employees is insulting. Or every walk up counter or take out order expecting a 15%-20% gratuity- I grew up working in food & services industry and I’ve always been a 20% tipper but when a service is provided. I should not be asked for a 20% tip for having to walk up or call in my order and make my way to pick up my meal.
With all these price increases in restaurants due to high inflation we are experiencing and once inflation is under control and cost of food and gas goes comes down-do any of you think the restaurants will be reducing their prices? I know they’re not, so even though we are all being affected by inflation the restaurants margin will increase once things turn the corner and us the customer will be stuck paying $40 entrees and $16 drinks.