Where to Dine Now

The Shrinking Boston Entrée

And other tactics the owners of midprice restaurants use to beat the numbers game.

It’s encouraging to see so many affordable restaurants popping up across the city, but that $15-to-$25-per-entrée price point isn’t easy for owners to pull off. Restaurants are low-margin operations. Labor is expensive. Rent and ingredient costs are at an all-time high. To make it work, smart restaurateurs follow some key business strategies.

First, they learn to control their food spending, which can run up to a third of a restaurant’s budget. The easiest way? Shrink portion sizes. It’s happening everywhere in Boston, particularly at midprice restaurants. (And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, considering the perils of supersizing.) Steve Johnson of Cambridge’s Rendezvous says that to keep his entrées under $30, he’s plating 10 to 11 ounces of boneless sirloin today, compared with 12 ounces a few years ago. That difference of an ounce or two isn’t obvious to the eye, but it helps the bottom line.

Restaurateurs are also charging more for non-entrée items to offset money losers like $20 steaks. This can raise a bill by $3 to $15, but doesn’t seem to offend diners as much as, say, a $36 roast chicken. Meanwhile, dessert and cocktail prices have been creeping up for years. And since diners often see these offerings as indulgences, they’re willing to pay more.

Even with these strategies, few midprice restaurants can thrive on dinner alone. Many are open daily, sometimes all day, in order to keep turning tables (and selling more liquor). Others opt for the economy of consistent menus. Just look at the now ubiquitous Boston brasserie: those capacious lists—burgers and martinis as well as île flottante—feature the same fare night after night. That means food can be purchased in bulk, and the staff needs less training. Chef A, chef B, maybe even the maitre d’ could execute that steak frites.

When all else fails, there’s always the power of cheap real estate, essential for restaurants (Ten Tables is a prime example) known for immaculate produce and chef-y fare. For those places, tiny spaces, basement settings, and left-of-center locales translate into lower overhead. Fortunately, this final strategy has an additional advantage: bringing more dining options to a neighborhood near you.

—By Alison Arnett