Highway robbery at a kosher restaurant

[Cyrano]

I had a visit from a friend I hadn’t seen in years. He’s Jewish orthodox and will only eat out at a “glatt” kosher restaurant. We went to one that someone had told him about.

I knew to expect high prices, $10 to $12 for a hamburger or a hot dog, but I didn’t expect $16. And I really didn’t expect a $2.00 charge if you wanted lettuce, or tomato, or condiments. (French fries were $4.) Even my friend was surprised and jokingly warned me not to use the salt or pepper as they might tack on an additional charge.

When I got home, I googled glatt kosher restaurants in the region and found that, while they were all pricey, most did not charge extra for French fries or basics.

There was a time when you knew you were being held up because the guy robbing you had a mask and a gun. At this restaurant, their weapon of choice was a menu.

I don’t know if this is only a South Florida thing. Anyone here have any glatt kosher restaurants in your area? And if so, do any charge for the things I mentioned above?

(Given what's going on in the world, this topic is trivial. But we're all so overwhelmed with the primaries, terrorism, etc., I felt the need to lighten up a bit.)

[KamaAina]

1. Glatt kosher seems rather trivial

I used to see them all the time in NYC, but never went to one. Here's the difference from plain old garden-variety kosher:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita#Glatt

Glatt (Yiddish: גלאט , or Halak (חלק in Hebrew, means "smooth" in German and Yiddish. In the context of kosher meat, it refers to the smoothness, or lack of blemish, in the internal organs of the animal. In the case of an adhesion on a cow’s lungs specifically, there is debate between Ashkenazic customs and Sephardic customs. While there are certain areas of the lung where an adhesion is allowed, the debate revolves around adhesions which do not occur in these areas. Ashkenazic Jews rule that if the adhesion can be removed (there are various methods of removing the adhesion, and not all of them are acceptable even according to the Ashkenazic custom) and the lungs are still airtight (a process that is tested by filling the lungs with air and then submerging them in water and looking for escaping air) then the animal is still kosher, while Sephardic Jews rule that if there is any sort of adhesion on the forbidden areas of the lungs, then the animal is not kosher.

That hardly seems worthy of such a gigantic markup.

[Photographer]

2. Makes me happy that I eat just about anything...

Hell, I'd eat shoe leather if it came with a good sauce or gravy.

[Cyrano]

4. Me too. But I'd steer clear of

places that only serve Manolo Blahnik or Jimmy Choo shoes.

[KamaAina]

9. Silly Photographer. You use shoes to drink champagne.

Last edited Mon Dec 7, 2015, 06:48 PM - Edit history (1)

[Photographer]

14. Dunno... Champaigne out of an old well worn tennis shoe...

[olddots]

3. Four of us went to very good health food place and had soup and sanwichs

120 bucks including 20% tip . Special needs diets are for special people.......I am not special .

[Sgent]

5. We have 2 in our area

one is very expensive and marks up everything. The other is actually competitive with other area restaurants (they have a significant non-jewish customer base), although it doesn't do traditional "Jewish" food -- its a Moroccan restaurant.

[Sgent]

6. Glatt Kosher

is only an issue when dealing with beef or lamb -- other ingredients are not effected.

Things such as lettuce / tomato, french fries, etc. are kosher by themselves -- they buy the same lettuce and potato's as the TGI Friday's down the street.

[Cyrano]

7. Yeah, my friend told me that,

and he too thought it was "robbery" that this place was charging for lettuce, tomato and other basics.

[hueymahl]

8. Umm - here's a suggestion

Don't eat there.

[dilby]

10. But was the food good?

I have been to places that had high prices and great food which was fine in my opinion. But if it was high prices and terrible food then no thank you.

[underahedgerow]

11. There is a pricing rule of thumb in the restaurant industry, it follows a basic formula.

It's the rule of 3. If your hamburger or hot dog or foie gras costs 5 bucks to make, then you have to charge 15 bucks to the customer to make a profit.

Of that 15 bucks, 1/3 goes to the cost of the products to make the burger. The bun, the meat, the condiments, spices, etc. and everything on the plate including salad, fries, parsley, side dishes, etc.

1/3 goes to business taxes, payroll taxes, city, state and federal taxes, payroll for the cooks, the servers, the dishwashers, the cleaners, water, electricity, gas, vehicles, rents/mortgage and every other costs associated with being a business.

The last 1/3 is your profit. So obviously, if you are charging 15 bucks for that burger, you get about 5 bucks back into your pocket. Now, if your overheads are higher than expected or just high in general, that overage comes out of your profits.

The restaurant business is very, very tough, especially today with rising costs for just about everything. It's a lot cheaper to learn to cook and eat in your own home, but it sure is nice to go out once in a while. I see that even Mcdonalds charges nearly 10 bucks for a premium burger meal over here.... Shocking these days. I can get a quite nice 3 course sit down lunch with wine for about 15 bucks and dinner always costs at least 20 bucks a person, usually closer to 30, minimum.

Pasta is the big profit & money maker on any menu, which is why it's always pushed the hardest. There is also a specific 'science' to menu planning and layout, with certain low profit items in one area, high profit dishes in another, etc. So when choosing items from a menu it's handy to know their little secrets.

And like Tony Bourdain says, never eat fish on Monday.

[NCTraveler]

12. It hasn't happened often, but I have eaten a couple of burgers I would pay $16 for.

So, how good was the burger?

[Iowa Bill]

13. "I knew to expect high prices"

Really? Hmmmm...

[cyberswede]

15. What do you mean?

Specialty food places typically have higher prices.

[Cyrano]

16. My big problem wasn't with the burger

Charging $2.00 for lettuce and $2.00 for tomato on a burger is outrageous.

The other places that I googled when I got home had no such charges on their menus and most of them included french fries with the burger.

[cyberswede]

26. I get what you meant; I was asking Iowa Bill what he meant.

[Iowa Bill]

30. I was thinking what TeamPooka was thinking below

Especially in light of Trump's recent comments to the RJC. I am not insinuating that Cyrano is Donnie in Disguise. It does seem like an odd post for a political forum, though.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. Well, you know

Just sayin, you know

You know

[TeamPooka]

17. Golly gee this post has a subtle anti-Semetic vibe to it. Not accusing-just saying what I felt from

reading it.
Perceptions define reality and that's how I perceive this post.

[Cyrano]

18. Sigh

I felt this would show up here and sure as hell, here it is.

[TeamPooka]

21. The perceptions continue.... nt

[Cyrano]

22. Percept away

[Warren DeMontague]

19. It's ...a weird thread.

Yeah, there are a lot of restaurants that are overpriced.

[KamaAina]

23. Indeed. The OP is as much of an anti-Semite as Henry Ford or Hitler.

Which explains why he went out to a glatt kosher restaurant with his Orthodox Jewish friend.

[Cyrano]

24. Thanks for the support, KamaAina

It's impossible to fight off accusations or implications from some.

[LiberalArkie]

27. Well if you go to a "soul food" restaurant and say the prices are high, you are a racist right?

I guess it is the same thing about going out for some "French food", rats I forgot, what do we call the French?

[KamaAina]

29. Freedom food

Actually, we wuv the French now that they're victims of Daesh terror.

[LiberalElite]

33. I think you mean

"Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys."

[philosslayer]

25. Is there a purpose to this thread?

You went to an expensive restaurant. Okay. I just had to buy a lightning cable to charge my iphone at the airport and it cost $25. I'll be starting my thread to discuss it shortly.

[dembotoz]

28. mickey d dollar menu sounds pretty good right about now

[kwassa]

31. Many restaurants are highway robbery.

Regardless of ethnicity.

It is possible to have great food for a low price, and crap for a high price. That is the art of dining.

[Retrograde]

32. $22 for a basic burger and fries sounds steep by Bay Area standards

But if it's not driving away the customers the restaurant can do what it wants.

I'm curious: what else is on the menu, and how is it priced?