Inflation is affecting nearly every industry, some worse than others. One of those industries feeling the pinch is luxury dining, and the man who’s been synonymous with it for the past four-plus decades is dealing with it every day.
Wolfgang Puck is an icon, a bona fide living legend still on top of his game. The founder of Spago in Beverly Hills gave Yahoo Finance the breakdown of ballooning costs that he said are entirely out of control.
“The average cost now in our restaurants for food is up 15%, which is a lot. I bought the other day cutting boards, for example, for one restaurant, I bought 12 cutting boards, I spent $1,500, and then a week later, it went up to $2,000.”
Food costs are up by 11.2% over what they were a year ago. One point Puck made is that soaring food costs are just one way restaurants get hammered. Many are still reeling from governments shutting them down during the pandemic, and every day there’s something new to worry about or deal with.
“Forget about if there’s something to repair in a restaurant, just to get somebody out to come and fix your stove or your refrigerator, it costs a fortune, so everything has gotten up.”
One of the biggest challenges for restaurant owners is staffing, especially in a city like Los Angeles, where actors who filled many of the jobs could not afford to live in an expensive market like Los Angeles. Puck said workers had a lot of power now, dictating how much they wanted to work and how much they wanted to make.
Puck Tod Yahoo about a sommelier at one of his restaurants making $100K brought him an offer from another place offering him $30K more. He had to match it, considering how much it would cost to replace and train someone new.
“People still have money to spend. Maybe they go out less maybe, but not that much, really. I know in Las Vegas; we have restaurants in Las Vegas, it’s booming, it’s better than ever and I’m sure the hotels, the gaming is doing better than ever because we get the customers if they lose enough money. They have to eat and to drink.”
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