LA Times: U.S. restaurants starved for business

[marmar]

With consumers and businesses keeping a lid on expenses, more and more small and mid-size restaurants are throwing in their dish towels and closing up shop.

Southern California lost nearly a thousand more restaurants than it gained during the 12 months that ended in March, representing a net 2% drop that was twice the national average, according to the New York research firm NPD Group.

Nearly all the closings were among independently owned restaurants: small, family businesses that just couldn't hold on as customers held back. Earlier in the year restaurants reported modest increases in business, but the jumps in sales were too little too late for many.

"We were going in reverse," said Ken Rausch, who last month made the wrenching decision to close his family's 65-year-old San Gabriel Valley restaurant, Edward's Steakhouse. The restaurant had weathered previous recessions, but this downturn drained the family's resources — and showed few signs of letting up, Rausch said.

Other well-known haunts have also succumbed: Orso on 3rd Street near Robertson Boulevard, a trattoria popular with the entertainment crowd, closed last winter after a nearby movie studio laid off a big chunk of its employees; across the nation, Koo Koo Roo, Bennigan's, Bakers Square, Tony Roma's and other chains have shut dozens of locations. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0821-restaurants-closing-20100821,0,584097.story

[NNN0LHI]

1. Too expensive to eat out for us

Took the daughter, son in-law, two grandsons and my wife out for a hot dog and hamburger lunch at a small restaurant around here and the bill before the tip was over fifty bucks.

Too much.

Don

[tech9413]

2. Same here, I'd love to support local eateries but you gotta pinch

pennies when you have no income. I regularly watch Diners, Drive-in's and Dives. There are tons of great restaurants around the country that offer great food at a good price. We need to support the best and let the rest fail. I can prepare a good meal for about $2.50/per but sometimes the alternative of not doing all the work yourself is worth the cost.

[conspirator]

3. No middle class-> No business for restaurants. Except Mcdonalds,which serves cheap crap

for the people at the bottom of the pyramid scheme.

[eridani]

4. After I retired, we cut out 3/4 of our restaurant meals

I don't like seeing old favorites go down, but we really don't have a choice.