05091958

Restaurant Week, like most things in life, is what you make it. When I was the chef at Lola it was one of our highest revenue weeks. Food cost was a little high but for a crappy month like August we could take it. Cash flow is a good thing. RW is a great way to have potential new customers experience your restaurant. Treating them anything but fantastic is just dumb.

Never play down to the small percentage of people who will take advantage of the situation. If you don't want to participate in RW as an owner just write the Food Bank a check, get your tax write off, and save yourself a lot of trouble and bad word of mouth.

Here is something RW patrons may not realize. If you are in an establishment that is providing you a $50 value for $35 (the restaurant really gets $28 after the charitable donation), you shold tip on $50. If I go out to eat at a friends place and they decide to discount or comp me I leave a tip based on 25% of what I think the bill would have been! You just got a deal, don't get stingy with the waiter! Jamie Samford, www.winnmeat.com

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