Daisy's is the latest Wellington restaurant to shut down in recent months. Photo: Supplied
A Wellington restaurant owner who closed the doors for the final time this weekend believes meals are underpriced and people do not understand the true cost of putting the food on the table, including wages for kitchen and wait staff.
Asher Boote closed his restaurant Daisy's at the weekend. He said a lot of factors contributed to the decision, including tough economic times and tight margins.
It is one of several venues that have shut up shop in the capital recently.
Boote told Checkpoint that people needed to remember that dining out was a luxury and that may mean going out less, but paying more.
"It's been a challenging few years and it continues to be challenging. So, lots of people are waiting for things to get better.
"Hospitality is an optimistic industry, lots of people are hoping for the best, but there's still lots of people struggling and just doing their best to make things work at the moment."
He said low prices will affect the hospitality industry long term.
"It's putting pressure not only on owners, but it means wages continue to stay low and that obviously affects the industry in the long term as well, in terms of staff retention and the overall quality of product that you're able to provide."
He said he found a menu from 1987 that had main meals listed from $26-28 and put the prices into the Treasury inflation calculator, comparing current inflation rates.
"That comes out about $70, $72 or $73 for a for a main course, based on the inflation period."
"I'm not necessarily saying that's exactly what the price should be, but when you look at where wages are today compared to compared to then, the price of goods the price of ingredients, the price of power, price of insurance, that actually sounds about right."
People were treating the experience of dining out wrong and undervalued hospitality workers, he said.
"The fact that someone is cooking for you, serving you, cleaning up after you, those are all human interactions.
"It's very easy to say, 'hey, I could buy this from the supermarket and make it cheaper at home'. Well, of course you could, absolutely no one's doing that for you."
Dining out should be considered a luxury, he said.
"I'm talking about your casual coffee, your pie, your pizza, curry, or your degustation. Across the board I don't think it's any question that it's a luxury to have people cooking for you, serving for you, cleaning up after you."
People tended to expect a bargain when they dined out, he said.
"The retaliation saying things like this is a way of suppressing prices, if you bring places down, if you insult places, if you try to say how this place is cheap, so it's better. All that's doing is dragging things down."
The customers he valued the most were ones who treated the experience as a luxury, he said.
"They have saved up and it is an experience for them, and they really value what you're offering, and they really want to be there and it's exciting and they've had to work hard for that money, and they put a high value on it.
"I can't afford to eat out every day, that's for sure. So, when I do go out, it's really special to me. I'll pay the price the place has asked me because I've chosen to go there."
He said people paid 40 percent for the human element for a meal at a restaurant compared with the price of food.
"We're not undervaluing the food, we're undervaluing the people."
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