Rising food prices taking a toll on Bay Area restaurant owners
LOS GATOS -- Skyrocketing inflation is impacting many business sectors, but it is also hitting Bay Area food lovers right in the gut.
Restaurants and diners are all being forced to pay higher prices for the ingredients to some of their most popular menu items.
Dean Devincenzi owns Double D's Sports Grille in Los Gatos. He says he has been paying more money for almost everything in his kitchen.
"This is our salmon. This has gone from about seven dollars a pound to almost 14 dollars a pound," he said.
He took KPIX cameras into a walk-in refrigerator, where the restaurant keeps most of his fresh ingredients, including the raw hamburger for his popular burgers.
"This has gone up about a dollar a pound. Avocados used to be 45 dollars a case, now it's $61.50. French fries, onion rings, this is the one that's gone up 50 percent," he explained.
Devincenzi looked through his bills Wednesday, comparing prices now with what they were a year ago. The difference showed a big hit to his bottom line.
"I think we'd be lucky in the best-case scenario to make 8-12% profit. Whereas before it could have been 10-15% percent," said Devincenzi.
Devincenzi said he will have to raise menu prices on some items.
"The Double D's burger was $18. Last year we raised it to $19, and now it's going to have to go up to $20."
Food prices are just the beginning. Labor costs are also up. But Devincenzi is not cutting staff. He says he can't raise prices high enough to keep up with inflation because he would be out of business.
"Our filet mignon was selling at $48. Now it's a 50% increase. We can't raise our prices 50%. No way," he said. "So we just have to eat it."
Devincenzi says he's doing a lot more hands on work to save some labor costs to make up the difference. Other than that, he can only hope that prices stabilize and drop again to more manageable levels.
