September 4th, 2008
Cafe
We’ve listened alot to the feedback we’ve gotten about the cafe and I mean ALOT. One of the biggest disappointments has been the lack of interest in great quality ingredients such as fulton valley chicken and Brandt beef. With the economy the way it is the large majority of the hamilton’s clientile are more concerned with the bottomline price then the quality of the food and I can respect and understand that. Even though our food cost has been 20% over the margin of what ANY cafeor restaraunt should do people still seemed shocked on the prices and I can understand that if you dont understand the quality you are paying for which we tried to explain. At the end of the day though it was my decision to providethe same tasty menu items for a more affordable price for a pub vs a restaraunt which results in the obvious need for us to switch vendors and be less critical over the types of meat, produce we use. I thought we did the best we could to offer a more organic offering but the result was a pricepoint that was tough on a majority of our customer base. As of friday you will start to see all pricing go down significantly and this is because of the cost of the ingredients that we can do this. The same flavor and the same care in producing each meal will still be evident but instead of Brandt Beef we’ll be serving XYZ beef like the 95% of the other places. Times are tough and we get that therefore I conciously chose to change direction to make it a little easier for everyone..
EDIT:
I do appreciate the comments and trust me when I say it was a very difficult decision and one i wasnt overly happy making but it was one that took time and thought and much deliberation. If I was a restaraunteur i wouldnt even have that discussion but because we’re a pub it was strictly pricepoint based with the pricepoint being strictly geared to affordability to the clientile. What this allows me to do now is go with WEEKLY SPECIALS starting in a couple weeks that will allow us to reincorporate organic ingredients and specials like Hanger Steak and Heirloom Tomato Salad, Gourmet Burgers, etc.. So those who dont mind (because I know there were many who didnt) paying a little more for great quality can get it.