Times are tough. Inflation is at a 40-year high. Restaurants continue to face budget-busting challenges from the pandemic and labor crisis. But that’s not all. As I write this sentence, food prices have increased by 18%, a number that may be even higher as you read.
Here’s the weird thing. You may look at the menu for your favorite restaurant and see a few price hikes, but nothing that seems anywhere near 18%.
What’s up? Are restauranteurs morphing into benevolent philanthropists? Uh, that would be a negative, although according to OpenTable data, as a group, restaurateurs say they got into the business because they want to take care of people….