Diners are known for their seemingly endless menus, quality food, and wonderful atmosphere. They’re going out of business, writes Aaron Elstein, at least in New York anyway:

• The number of NY diners has decreased from 1,000 to 398 in a generation.
• The biggest problem is rent. The extensive inventories require extensive storage space and rent can be as high as $25,000 a month.
• Employees have to be skilled enough to make 400 different dishes and master 60 different types of salads.
• Food prices change all the time but updating a diner’s voluminous menu to reflect new prices requires thousands of dollars for new printing.
• Landlords, for their part, prefer renting space to national chains like Applebee’s because they know they can go to the corporate parent if an individual restaurant owner fails to pay rent.
• On the other end of the spectrum food trucks are putting pressure on margins by offering short, focused menus which lead to low-priced food.

The full article looks at the Greek origins of diners and interviews owners of some of New York’s best diners. Read it here.

Source: Crain’s

Via: Marginal Revolution