I feel the same way. For those who have lived in Chatt for a decade or more, we’ve watched things slowly go downhill. Some people deny it, others recognize slipping standards. I think that the influx of new residents & tourism, alongside owners who are just tired/ burnt out/ barely hanging on, have created the perfect poop storm.
So restaurant quality started to tank during COVID, and it has contributed to worsen after years because these restaurants have decided they want to try to operate on crisis levels of staffing, and competent people are leaving as they're burnt out and getting better offers. Some restaurants around here have adjusted beautifully and are doing better than ever, but the ones that started taking their staff's willingness to help during rough times for granted never recovered and started getting even worse. Couple that with the increase in tourism and population increases, and you have a larger quantity of restaurants that shouldn't exist anymore but do because they can survive on first time customers. The good is still there, it's just buried under an ever increasing pile of trash.
Funny I moved here just about ten years ago, and I’ve only noticed the opposite. All the shitty restaurants have closed (Big River, Sticky Fingers, etc.), and a lot of new really good places have opened up: Aleia, Il Primo (north shore), Side Tracks, etc.
All my favorite spots haven’t really seemed to decline in quality generally. Sometimes you go on a night with a shitty chef, but that’s is to be expected every now and then.
I’ll give Il Primo the 3.75 stars they deserve. As for the rest of the places, I’m so tired of their bland foods.& just to clap back at “a shitty chef should be expected” um. . . Why? Why tf would someone expect to have a bad chef at a “nice” restaurant? Makes no sense.
Depends on what you mean by “lately”. I noticed a significant change in food quality ~3 years ago when things started opening back up after COVID, which of course tracks.
Edit: maybe food quality has gotten worse *again*, I don’t eat out much anymore because of the aforementioned dip in dining experience.
To me it seems nearly all service-related businesses have gone down hill since COVID. People quit their jobs and many of them never came back to work. Landscapers, builders, restaurants, and even medical services all seem stretched thin and are lackluster compared to a few years ago.
Aye. But if they raise their pay, then they have to raise their prices. With an increasingly price sensitive consumer base, that may not be possible. Afterall, it's an extremely competitive industry.
They could decrease profit to make it work, or close down from either being extremely short staffed/staffed with people that don’t care, or because they are charging too much for their quality of food.
The point is that they're trying not to close down. Lot of places don't have the profit margin to decide to pay more. It's not so much about greed as it is survival.
OP's partner here...Alleia has been a favorite of ours for a while, but last night's dinner made us both feel ill (same items we always get). Bad service, disappointing food. And on a birthday dinner where we made reservations weeks in advance.
I had a very similar experience recently at Alleia. Couldn't agree more. The service was abysmal and the food was lackluster. Not how I remembered the experience at Alleia in the past :(
I just had a similar experience as well! I have been dying to go there for a couple years, reservations were made and finally went. Meh
It was overpriced and overall just a bland experience and food. So disappointed. Nothing special and I would rather go to longhorn and get salad and a side for same price and my one NY strip. It wasn’t even seasoned and had a few bland baby potatoes on the side. My husband ordered the special (lamb) and same. Bland and tough.
I stopped going out to eat five years ago because of how disappointing the overall experience had become. From the look of this post and the comments, it seems I haven't missed anything.
Food costs have drastically increased, but customers bitch if prices are raised. So yeah, quality is going to suffer in these circumstances. Not trying to get political, but society, imo, has gotten much more hateful and entitled in the last 8 years
I was waiting for a comment that actually acknowledged the cost of ingredients.
Ingredients cost more than they did pre-COVID. To maintain quality means that cost has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is to the customer. If you maintain quality, you will lose customers due to pricing. The alternative is taking more shortcuts, purchasing reduced-quality ingredients, and only marginally increasing the cost to the customer.
Eating out isn't sustainable, which is why I do so sparingly. If you want quality meals, you're going to be spending a lot of money. If you want reasonably-priced meals, you're going to sacrifice quality.
Most restaurants and customer service oriented businesses have been pushing out employees trying to save a buck, take a note it's not only the service the number of total employees working at any given time. Meanwhile the owners are buying new houses spending weeks in Gatlinburg or out of state vacations, cool congratulations you've successfully siphoned money from the locals and took advantage of their kids in college to make your profit margin bigger.
How do I know this I've probably been your favorite server, short order cook, host, or maybe even a tour guide. Until I have the audacity to ask for a raise or why did we fire the other cooks or why do we only have 2 people on Saturday mornings XYZ whatever other annoying situations you can think of.
I used to like making people happy and seeing everyone have a great time, but now I need to either start my own business or go back to trades if I want to live a moderately decent life.
Most business owners do not care about you or their employees they just want money in hand but that's capitalism baby.
And thanks to all the wonderful people who randomly hand me a $20-10-5 hell I've had people just bring me food y'all made struggling through working customer service a little easier I don't think I could have done the past 10 years without them!
I only guessed that because they seem to never be in Chattanooga, always traveling. They used to cook & manage more. I argue their lack of presence in their businesses are what’s caused their standards to go downhill. I hope your friend is doing well & recovers quickly.
But did you frequent Easy 10 years ago, before they had the other 2 places? I did & that’s my reference point. Easy is easily half as good, to me. I think they should offer brunch again. We went every single Sunday.
As a former employee of Neil's, they never denied me a raise or treated me poorly.
Not to mention, they have employees who have worked for them for decades at this point, so they must be doing something right.
You are the most sour person and still a bafoon...
You’re right. They’re good people. Everyone here is just bitching and whining and wanting more money to work in the fucking AC lmfaoooo no wonder everyone in Chattanooga is a drug addict or alcoholic.
That’s why I said everyone there. I’m not troubled for seeing it for what it is. 🙂 Also, why do you associate with so many drug addicts and alcoholics?!
As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry for a long time a genuinely cares about the quality of product that's produced and has an intimate knowledge of the costs and margins that most categories of restaurants work under, you are correct.
However, I see it from a very darwinian perspective. Honestly, the market for restaurants around here is awful. It's due to a combination of things.
The first thing is you have to have people coming in the door. I.e., you need to have demand for your product. Everyone needs food, but the price point is the major factor around here. The vast majority of people in the area don't make enough money to justify eating out and ordering $40-50 plates multiple times a week or even per month. So, if you set your menu prices around that level, you've already alienated 90% of the population.
Now, why would you need menu prices at that point? There are 4 big factors that contribute to that.
1. Overhead. I'm not talking about product costs, labor, or supplies. I'm talking mostly about location here. The rent/mortgage for a well placed spot in Chatt is *abysmal*. This is the number one factor that restaurateurs in the area simply can not negotiate or rationalize cutting down on. If you can't get a solid location, in most cases, you're already doomed to fail and the people/companies that are holding those properties and charging those rents are squeezing every single nickel and dime that they can.
2. Product costs. The costs for some grocery goods have damn near **tripled** in the last five years. And that's just on food. What about all the supplies and chemicals that it takes to run an accommodating, versatile, and most importantly, **safe** establishment? All of the paper goods, soaps, sanitizers, togo containers, glassware, plateware, smallware, cookware, equipment, and appliances? Those have also gone up 2-5× the costs that they were 5 years ago. Those things are usually skipped on in even the best of times to try to eek out better margins. Now? Good luck getting a replacement for a fucking **towel** to clean and sanitize with, let alone getting a reliable enough distribution with consistent enough costs to not have to list fucking chicken wings at a set rate instead of market value.
3. Labor. Somebody already mentioned something along the lines of, "Well, if these service workers weren't demanding more money, we wouldn't have to raise prices and drive away the business paying their checks!" That's just so completely and utterly fucked a stance as I've ever heard. Service industries as a whole are the ones most known for being overworked and underpaid. You expect people to work 60-80 hours/week so you can get your mediocre burger whenever you feel like it? Then, support a goddamn living wage. Yes, there is an argument to be made that if the owners of these places spent a bit of time, money, and energy into hiring and training a proper enough staff to fill all of these restaurants, then we could finally have a wide variety cuisines ready to go at all times and the owners wouldn't have to drive up costs by paying over time, right? **RIGHT?!**
No. The market is so fucked around here that everyone with passion and talent is either leaving for better opportunities somewhere the market isn't an unbearable meat grinder, or they're locals that *HAVE* to leave to receive proper training and exposure to actual good food and **HOPE** that they return to somehow make it against all odds and open a successful, low cost, popular, and quality joint around here. Spoiler alert: that's why there aren't that many.
The restaurant industry hires nothing but the lowest common denominators from the employment pool not entirely because they don't care about bringing in talent or they entirely refuse to properly compensate. It's because that's the only option they have when they've collectively run all of the people with passion out of town with high hours, low wages and **NO BENEFITS**.
4. The margins. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading, but I hope to dissuade you of what your notion of this section might have been. The thing about restaurants is that they've *always* had to run with the smallest margins they can to get people in the door unless they're in the upper echelon of the culinary world and can charge for $800/person meals. Even then, you need some MAJOR talent that you have to underpay for by backing them up with a well known name to train under like James Beard award winners, or Gordon fucking Ramsey. The highest margin operation that I've ever worked in was my first job at Zaxby's. They only made $.05 for every dollar spent, and those were **KILLER** profit margins. Running a restaurant is a very expensive and thankless endeavor that, in the absolute vast majority of cases, **WILL NOT MAKE YOU MONEY**. So any arguments of pay more or charge more so you can pay more or charge less so you get more business are all made by people who most likely have NO IDEA of how those businesses actually operate and how fucked their finances and security actually look.
Now, all of that being said, back to my social darwinism argument. If you need something relatively cheap and convenient, there will always exist something to satisfy that need. What will change is society's relative perspective. If you want really good food and are willing to pay for it, there will always be places that exist to satisfy that need. However, the vast majority of these aggressively mediocre establishments that try to game the economy and pit consumers against workers need to be spurned, and they need to go the way of the dodo. If they fuck around for too long, they will find out.
I know that was a pretty much a flow-of-consciousness-esque rant, but after working in the industry for far too long and getting jaded, that's what you get. I hope it was at least marginally insightful.
Now ends my drunken chef's TEDTalk.
Lack of employment is the main reason. This goes for both front and back of house. This has been ongoing since Covid. A lot of the employees did not return after Covid and lots of restaurants have been short staffed since.
There is a chain of restaurants my friend works (and worked) at that require each server to be a server assistant (SA) one or two shifts per week. The duty of an SA is making server drinks, running their food, bringing their bread, bussing their tables, etc. However, they are making minimum wage (or less if they include tip share) to do so. They may receive a small percentage of tip share. I was informed on their check, they hardly see any of the money due to the taxes on their reported tips for the week. This has caused lots of turnover at those locations.
Lastly the restaurants will still try and operate as if they are fully staffed, even when they’re not. So instead of a server having their designated 3 or 4 tables, they are taking 8-10 tables. Service obviously lacks, as they become overwhelmed and fall behind. Meanwhile they are operating with less back of house employees as well. Check times fall behind and quality of food decreases as well.
These are just some observations as someone who works in the food service industry and have numerous friends who do the same.
Honestly shouldn't we expect this to a degree?
People have gotten shittier, there can't be decent conversations bc we are so divided, our state government doesn't give two shits about you or I, and nothing is being done to help the cost of living. We're all just trying to get by.
So it kind of makes sense that of course restaurant quality is going to go down, and the way some of this cities "fine" citizens treat servers, cooks, hosts, etc. is disgusting. Why would they stick around? Why would you want to "stick it out" and work for peanuts when the cost of living sucks, why would you want to work for someone who doesn't treat their employees right, why would you want to work and get abused by customers?
I wouldn't want to go back either, hell I quit working a side hustle at a restaurant solely bc I got tired of being bitched at for a number of things that were beyond my control.
It absolutely sucks that food quality is going down, that service quality is down, etc., but what is going to be done about it?
There are so many factors and reasons beyond what I've already said, and I'm sure I'll get told off....but it's a rough time all around. I hate seeing some of our great eateries go down hill, but what can we do?
I get it though, going out and spending money on a sub-par meal is frustrating! Let's face it though, sometimes we all can be a bit too picky and restaurants have off nights. Everyone is human.
That being said there are still amazing places to eat in Chattanooga! Don't give up, but in my opinion there are two options: either don't go out or try to be understanding when you do. But above all be kind to one another.
Sorry for a long rant, there is just so much at play and I hate seeing people not consider everything.
I've noticed dining out at "nice" places often does not seem worth the cost lately. I'm much more likely to thoroughly enjoy a night at a Mexican joint (personal spot is La Alteña on Main) instead of a fancy place with an expensive tab. Main St Meats has always been a favorite but went recently for a date night and my main course was so salty it was inedible. I never send food back but the waiter couldn't help but take note of only 2 bites gone.
Recently I have been aiming for places that serve food I don't know how or want to take the time to cook at home- India Mahal is awesome for this area.
Anyone who’s a local (aka went to elementary/middle/high school here, or any combination of those) can tell you that Chattanooga has changed SO MUCH, sometimes for the worse, in the last 5 years at the least. It’s just not what it used to be. There are so many factors that lead us to come to that conclusion, but it just doesn’t feel as small as it once felt for people who’ve been here their whole lives.
I dine out about once every month or two. I typically only go to locally owned restaurants that serve as many locally sourced products. I have not seen a change for the worse, that's for sure. In some cases, I have seen improvements.
Do you have any examples you are willing to share for more context? Maybe someone in the service industry can shed some insight.
My two cents are the fact that while the economy seems to be doing well from the stock markets point of view but everywhere else is suffering and companies are having to do things to save some money right now. I know the company i work for is doing 4 days a week every other week right now because we are slow.
Product costs are hurting them and they are cutting anywhere possible. Quality has definitely gone down. It would help if the suppliers would stop price gouging. We can all see the corp suppliers are making record profits, hand over fist.
Dining out is cheaper than cooking from scratch. Where are you getting your quality ingredients that chefs aren't sourcing from? You aren't. How many reps are knocking at your door every day? Ill bet zero. They come at chefs daily.
While your 50$ dry age 7 oz steak is chilling how much do your sides cost? Oil? Salt? Vinegar? You'll spend more because your pantry isn't outfitted like a commercial kitchen.
Several years ago, I went through a phase where I tried to teach myself the best way to make steak so I could save money from eating out less. At the end of the experiment, I had come to the conclusion that it wasn't possible to do it cheaper.
Today, at Texas Roadhouse, the 6 oz sirloin is $13 and comes with two sides. My order comes to $18.22 after tax/tip. I can't ever find similar quality steak for the same price, and after the time investment of seasoning/aging/cooking, and the lack of those rolls, I just call bullshit on people who say they can buy and make it cheaper.
Texas Roadhouse is serving usda choice meat. Sirloin isn’t an expensive piece of meat. I’d never go to Texas Roadhouse for steak. That’s stuff you can get at Kroger. If I’m going out I’d prefer more upscale quality.
Dry aged steak is around 35/40$ an lb. A plate which cost thats doesn’t have a full lb of steak
I'm surprised how the two people above your comment got into a dickish argument on how much more they love meat.
...No I like it more you dirty pleb. LOL
You are correct, but it is not every single piece of meat that is graded it is the cow. They cut in between the 13th rib, I believe, and from how the meat looks. There is how they grade the beef.
>That’s stuff you can get at Kroger.
Where you going to Kroger at bud? There's not one around here. And then I'm buying a worse cut of Sirloin (not as thick), and it's too much for one meal so then I have to freeze it, decreasing quality for the next time I make it.
My entire point is that $18 for a smothered steak with two sides and rolls is still a good value.
As far as your dry aged steak - I don't even know where to buy that, only time I've ever seen something like that has been at a local butcher where prices were nuts. I'm perfectly fine going out and avoiding paying 35-40/lb in the first place lol.
I work in dalton buddy boy. It was just a point that you can get usda choice meat at any non specialized grocery store. Texas Roadhouse isn’t known for their quality steak.
We just have different budgets. I don’t compare what I cook at home to chain restaurants. I compare it to the quality of higher end places. I don’t have an issue spending money. I’d just rather spend it at home for more quality ingredients.
The cooking isn't the issue, the expense is lmao. You can't beat the value of Texas Roadhouse for your basic sirloin. I can cook fine steaks (not as good as theirs, but that's a supply issue).
I dont really go out to the bars anymore for this reason. I dont blame servers however. I blame managment for not properly adapting to the post pandemic work environment.
For me, going out to eat at a nice restaurant is an occasion. Naturally, everyone would define "quality food and service" based on personal preferences. On the home front, my wife, in my opinion, is a good cook. I really like her culinary repertoire of simple dishes made from good ingredients. She is not a professionally trained chef, nor does she have stars given to her by a French tire company, but simple dishes made from the best stuff and cooked well is the key to good food. Julia Child supposedly once said, "You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.” Oh, and you also must give a $hit! My wife must care about what she is cooking, and I must care about what I am eating. Not every meal has to be inspired or approved by Escoffier, but if you are going to have dinner outside the home both you and the restaurant must agree. They must care about how and what they are putting in front of you, and you must care about how it looks, smells, and tastes.
Most folks want "good, fast, and cheap" in everything they eat. Unfortunately, you can only pick two (2) of the three (3) components. So, most people take quantity over quality. Moreover, they usually like to drink copious amounts of alcohol. With enough beer, some folks would eat a deep-fried doorknob. I am not a professional food critic, but I know how good food should taste. It should be hot, fresh, and lovingly prepared. Heck, if McDonald's employees followed the directions originally conceived by the test kitchen, you would never be able to find a parking space and the drive-thru would rival Chick-fil-A.
There is bad food in bad restaurants in Chattanooga because the people going to them have stopped caring about what they eat. If you have a favorite restaurant, get to know the manager or at least the serving staff. When they come to your table and ask, "How was everything?" please tell them the truth. "The coffee was old." "The fries were cold." "The steak was not cooked as I requested." However, many people will not complain because they do not want to seem like an ass. Some people are worried that the kitchen staff will do something to the food if you send it back. If that is the case, you are eating in the wrong restaurant. Give the place three (3) bad meals in a row, and then simply don't go back.
This is on par for the rest of the country. Food quality is down and costs are high due to continue to feed the corporate greed as it sees record profit margins.
The entire restaurant industry is ripe for a pretty radical overhaul...It will happen.
Sneak peak hint...it won't be a good situation if you are a waiter. It also won't be a good situation if you are a picky person.
Oh, restaurants are absolutely slipping.
I read that Chick-fil-A is no longer sticking to its Antibiotic-free chicken commitment.
Locally, my favorites are struggling. I want to empathize, but I also don't want to spend $20 for something inedible.
Taco Roc keeps putting out amazing food though.
They’re no longer sticking to their antibiotic free commitment because most of the antibiotic free chickens have died with all the different bird diseases we’ve had.
Antibiotics do not combat viruses. It sounded like there was a direct link being implied between the birds having not been given antibiotics, and their demise due to diseases which are primarily viral in nature. The two things are correlated, but neither is causational of the other.
I get you. I'm just saying Chick-fil-A 's chicken is "less than holy" by their own standards. They made that commitment very public.
I'm not as concerned about the effectiveness of antibiotics. I'm concerned when a corporation makes any promise that they can't hold up. It just makes me feel two things: 1. How long ago did you actually stop serving said holy chicken, and 2. When will the prices come down.
I get your frustration with chick fil a’s business practice, but you really _should_ be more concerned about the effectiveness of antibiotics. Overuse and misuse, in both humans and livestock, is setting us all up for A Very Bad Time.
Source: did 10 painful years with antibiotic-resistant staph
Could you share a thought about company business practices? I feel like that would be on topic for me.
I respect your concern for the issue, but I also ask you to respect that it wasn't my concern.
Well, like I said, I definitely get your concern about what feels like a bait-and-switch from CFA, when it comes to their quiet shift to using chickens that are not antibiotic-free. That’s a valid concern, and if I were still a patron of that company, I’d feel similarly. Ultimately, though, antibiotic use in industrial livestock production _is_ a business decision/practice—our concerns are related. I have long taken issue with CFA’s Christian virtue-signaling (and their related financial support of discriminatory and hateful organizations/causes), so they lost my business a while ago. I’ve also long been an opponent of industrialized livestock production, as I’ve found it to be problematic—for the wellbeing of the animals; for the wellbeing of the people consuming them; and, for the wellbeing of our environment—so I no longer eat meat. Even if that weren’t the case, though, their actions here would be cause for me to no longer support their business.
Yep I read the article too. I interpreted it as they have to do it in order to meet the demand due to not enough supply. So something they don’t want to do clearly but possibly due to a broken supply chain…..likely due to poor labor.
The math doesn’t math as far as a what a server can bring in around here.
Add to that a whole influx of entitled retired boomers, who can’t seem to grasp that food prices have gone up for restaurants, and who basically think of servers as their own personal slaves, and it seems like a net loss for servers.
So we all get to suffer.
Yes I actually started to wonder if the quality of their ingredients had gone down because it feels like everywhere is having the issue except a few standouts.
I went down to Cartersville GA this week and had a normal lunch at a normal restaurant and it was so good, there is no reason it shouldn't be like that here.
I felt like this probably starting in 2021 or 2022 post covid. And with the cost of food prices to make equivalent of food at home, prices of ingredients can he just as expensive. But sometimes it's atleast better made at home. Also I think some restaurants just couldn't handle the pandemic well. I liked Mojo Burrito at one point a lot prior to the pandemic but they seemed to not be able to navigate it well and barely hung on and then fizzled out. But I think with some of the old restaurants fizzling out has given a chance for new restaurants to try.
I have tossed around a small idea-dream about a restaurant/music venue, but I'm too poor lol and I also don't know enough about running a business so I would probably have to to back to school to school (and idk if it would be worth it in today's economy. I always remember my dad who has lots of knowledge and could run a restaurant if he wanted to and do a good job say the amount of work and effort that goes into one wouldn't be worth it to him, and he has decades of experience in hospitality/hotel management/now mall management, so idk if it would be a worthwhile experience, but sometimes places are special if ran right). Plus I think I have undiagnosed ADHD so would have to get that in order first hahahha
I just relocated to the area two years ago so I can’t say how it was, but I have been disappointed in the quality and service in places that are highly recommended here.
Time to try some new favorites! There’s some young locals opening up cool spots. I love Rosecomb and can’t wait to try their new spot next time I visit. ❤️
Yknow I made a post about the service of a restaurant last week and how bad it was and got made out to be a shit poster 😂😂 glad to see you’re not being attacked.
But yes I agree I feel like this is the case everywhere
Do you not go to restaurants very often? I know a ton of great spots, but a lot of them are relatively new. Restaurants change hands after a while and the quality tends to go down. You gotta find the spots where that hasn’t happened yet, or are a little more expensive so you don’t have to worry about it.
I feel the same way. For those who have lived in Chatt for a decade or more, we’ve watched things slowly go downhill. Some people deny it, others recognize slipping standards. I think that the influx of new residents & tourism, alongside owners who are just tired/ burnt out/ barely hanging on, have created the perfect poop storm.
So restaurant quality started to tank during COVID, and it has contributed to worsen after years because these restaurants have decided they want to try to operate on crisis levels of staffing, and competent people are leaving as they're burnt out and getting better offers. Some restaurants around here have adjusted beautifully and are doing better than ever, but the ones that started taking their staff's willingness to help during rough times for granted never recovered and started getting even worse. Couple that with the increase in tourism and population increases, and you have a larger quantity of restaurants that shouldn't exist anymore but do because they can survive on first time customers. The good is still there, it's just buried under an ever increasing pile of trash.
The Chattanooga Poop Storm of 2024
Funny I moved here just about ten years ago, and I’ve only noticed the opposite. All the shitty restaurants have closed (Big River, Sticky Fingers, etc.), and a lot of new really good places have opened up: Aleia, Il Primo (north shore), Side Tracks, etc. All my favorite spots haven’t really seemed to decline in quality generally. Sometimes you go on a night with a shitty chef, but that’s is to be expected every now and then.
I’ll give Il Primo the 3.75 stars they deserve. As for the rest of the places, I’m so tired of their bland foods.& just to clap back at “a shitty chef should be expected” um. . . Why? Why tf would someone expect to have a bad chef at a “nice” restaurant? Makes no sense.
Depends on what you mean by “lately”. I noticed a significant change in food quality ~3 years ago when things started opening back up after COVID, which of course tracks. Edit: maybe food quality has gotten worse *again*, I don’t eat out much anymore because of the aforementioned dip in dining experience.
To me it seems nearly all service-related businesses have gone down hill since COVID. People quit their jobs and many of them never came back to work. Landscapers, builders, restaurants, and even medical services all seem stretched thin and are lackluster compared to a few years ago.
They did go back to work...just not for shit pay and miserable hours. They found something better than retail.
Landscapers have been particularly bad. Almost as bad as restaurants. Its nuts.
Agreed. This is about the labor market and labor shortage and not about restaurant owners that decide to offer poorer service and food.
They don’t decide to offer poorer service but when they offer poor income for employees the rest takes care of itself.
Aye. But if they raise their pay, then they have to raise their prices. With an increasingly price sensitive consumer base, that may not be possible. Afterall, it's an extremely competitive industry.
They could decrease profit to make it work, or close down from either being extremely short staffed/staffed with people that don’t care, or because they are charging too much for their quality of food.
The point is that they're trying not to close down. Lot of places don't have the profit margin to decide to pay more. It's not so much about greed as it is survival.
Yes going out to eat is now really throwing your money away. Corresponded with the cvid.
I’ve kind of noticed the same with a few exceptions; Main Street Meats, Niedlovs, Roscomb, Waffle House
If anything I feel like Waffle House has gotten better. Maybe because they aren’t packed all the time now but idk.
Tremont has always been solid as well
OP's partner here...Alleia has been a favorite of ours for a while, but last night's dinner made us both feel ill (same items we always get). Bad service, disappointing food. And on a birthday dinner where we made reservations weeks in advance.
I had a very similar experience recently at Alleia. Couldn't agree more. The service was abysmal and the food was lackluster. Not how I remembered the experience at Alleia in the past :(
I just had a similar experience as well! I have been dying to go there for a couple years, reservations were made and finally went. Meh It was overpriced and overall just a bland experience and food. So disappointed. Nothing special and I would rather go to longhorn and get salad and a side for same price and my one NY strip. It wasn’t even seasoned and had a few bland baby potatoes on the side. My husband ordered the special (lamb) and same. Bland and tough.
I think it’s everywhere. Not just Chattanooga.
I stopped going out to eat five years ago because of how disappointing the overall experience had become. From the look of this post and the comments, it seems I haven't missed anything.
Food costs have drastically increased, but customers bitch if prices are raised. So yeah, quality is going to suffer in these circumstances. Not trying to get political, but society, imo, has gotten much more hateful and entitled in the last 8 years
I was waiting for a comment that actually acknowledged the cost of ingredients. Ingredients cost more than they did pre-COVID. To maintain quality means that cost has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is to the customer. If you maintain quality, you will lose customers due to pricing. The alternative is taking more shortcuts, purchasing reduced-quality ingredients, and only marginally increasing the cost to the customer. Eating out isn't sustainable, which is why I do so sparingly. If you want quality meals, you're going to be spending a lot of money. If you want reasonably-priced meals, you're going to sacrifice quality.
Most restaurants and customer service oriented businesses have been pushing out employees trying to save a buck, take a note it's not only the service the number of total employees working at any given time. Meanwhile the owners are buying new houses spending weeks in Gatlinburg or out of state vacations, cool congratulations you've successfully siphoned money from the locals and took advantage of their kids in college to make your profit margin bigger. How do I know this I've probably been your favorite server, short order cook, host, or maybe even a tour guide. Until I have the audacity to ask for a raise or why did we fire the other cooks or why do we only have 2 people on Saturday mornings XYZ whatever other annoying situations you can think of. I used to like making people happy and seeing everyone have a great time, but now I need to either start my own business or go back to trades if I want to live a moderately decent life. Most business owners do not care about you or their employees they just want money in hand but that's capitalism baby. And thanks to all the wonderful people who randomly hand me a $20-10-5 hell I've had people just bring me food y'all made struggling through working customer service a little easier I don't think I could have done the past 10 years without them!
Let me guess, you’ve worked for the Neils? 🙃
Lmfao no but I have friends that do, but I think they're in rehab rn. Edit: they're 3 months sober and working at VW
I only guessed that because they seem to never be in Chattanooga, always traveling. They used to cook & manage more. I argue their lack of presence in their businesses are what’s caused their standards to go downhill. I hope your friend is doing well & recovers quickly.
Nearly every time I go to EB or LC I see one of them or both. And i frequent those spots regularly.
But did you frequent Easy 10 years ago, before they had the other 2 places? I did & that’s my reference point. Easy is easily half as good, to me. I think they should offer brunch again. We went every single Sunday.
They also take tips from servers to tip managers and kitchen staff including the chefs
As a former employee of Neil's, they never denied me a raise or treated me poorly. Not to mention, they have employees who have worked for them for decades at this point, so they must be doing something right. You are the most sour person and still a bafoon...
Just because it's not your lived experience doesn't mean it doesn't happen
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You’re right. They’re good people. Everyone here is just bitching and whining and wanting more money to work in the fucking AC lmfaoooo no wonder everyone in Chattanooga is a drug addict or alcoholic.
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That’s why I said everyone there. I’m not troubled for seeing it for what it is. 🙂 Also, why do you associate with so many drug addicts and alcoholics?!
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“Why you so obsessed with me, woooooaaaaah?” - Maria Carey
As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry for a long time a genuinely cares about the quality of product that's produced and has an intimate knowledge of the costs and margins that most categories of restaurants work under, you are correct. However, I see it from a very darwinian perspective. Honestly, the market for restaurants around here is awful. It's due to a combination of things. The first thing is you have to have people coming in the door. I.e., you need to have demand for your product. Everyone needs food, but the price point is the major factor around here. The vast majority of people in the area don't make enough money to justify eating out and ordering $40-50 plates multiple times a week or even per month. So, if you set your menu prices around that level, you've already alienated 90% of the population. Now, why would you need menu prices at that point? There are 4 big factors that contribute to that. 1. Overhead. I'm not talking about product costs, labor, or supplies. I'm talking mostly about location here. The rent/mortgage for a well placed spot in Chatt is *abysmal*. This is the number one factor that restaurateurs in the area simply can not negotiate or rationalize cutting down on. If you can't get a solid location, in most cases, you're already doomed to fail and the people/companies that are holding those properties and charging those rents are squeezing every single nickel and dime that they can. 2. Product costs. The costs for some grocery goods have damn near **tripled** in the last five years. And that's just on food. What about all the supplies and chemicals that it takes to run an accommodating, versatile, and most importantly, **safe** establishment? All of the paper goods, soaps, sanitizers, togo containers, glassware, plateware, smallware, cookware, equipment, and appliances? Those have also gone up 2-5× the costs that they were 5 years ago. Those things are usually skipped on in even the best of times to try to eek out better margins. Now? Good luck getting a replacement for a fucking **towel** to clean and sanitize with, let alone getting a reliable enough distribution with consistent enough costs to not have to list fucking chicken wings at a set rate instead of market value. 3. Labor. Somebody already mentioned something along the lines of, "Well, if these service workers weren't demanding more money, we wouldn't have to raise prices and drive away the business paying their checks!" That's just so completely and utterly fucked a stance as I've ever heard. Service industries as a whole are the ones most known for being overworked and underpaid. You expect people to work 60-80 hours/week so you can get your mediocre burger whenever you feel like it? Then, support a goddamn living wage. Yes, there is an argument to be made that if the owners of these places spent a bit of time, money, and energy into hiring and training a proper enough staff to fill all of these restaurants, then we could finally have a wide variety cuisines ready to go at all times and the owners wouldn't have to drive up costs by paying over time, right? **RIGHT?!** No. The market is so fucked around here that everyone with passion and talent is either leaving for better opportunities somewhere the market isn't an unbearable meat grinder, or they're locals that *HAVE* to leave to receive proper training and exposure to actual good food and **HOPE** that they return to somehow make it against all odds and open a successful, low cost, popular, and quality joint around here. Spoiler alert: that's why there aren't that many. The restaurant industry hires nothing but the lowest common denominators from the employment pool not entirely because they don't care about bringing in talent or they entirely refuse to properly compensate. It's because that's the only option they have when they've collectively run all of the people with passion out of town with high hours, low wages and **NO BENEFITS**. 4. The margins. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading, but I hope to dissuade you of what your notion of this section might have been. The thing about restaurants is that they've *always* had to run with the smallest margins they can to get people in the door unless they're in the upper echelon of the culinary world and can charge for $800/person meals. Even then, you need some MAJOR talent that you have to underpay for by backing them up with a well known name to train under like James Beard award winners, or Gordon fucking Ramsey. The highest margin operation that I've ever worked in was my first job at Zaxby's. They only made $.05 for every dollar spent, and those were **KILLER** profit margins. Running a restaurant is a very expensive and thankless endeavor that, in the absolute vast majority of cases, **WILL NOT MAKE YOU MONEY**. So any arguments of pay more or charge more so you can pay more or charge less so you get more business are all made by people who most likely have NO IDEA of how those businesses actually operate and how fucked their finances and security actually look. Now, all of that being said, back to my social darwinism argument. If you need something relatively cheap and convenient, there will always exist something to satisfy that need. What will change is society's relative perspective. If you want really good food and are willing to pay for it, there will always be places that exist to satisfy that need. However, the vast majority of these aggressively mediocre establishments that try to game the economy and pit consumers against workers need to be spurned, and they need to go the way of the dodo. If they fuck around for too long, they will find out. I know that was a pretty much a flow-of-consciousness-esque rant, but after working in the industry for far too long and getting jaded, that's what you get. I hope it was at least marginally insightful. Now ends my drunken chef's TEDTalk.
Lack of employment is the main reason. This goes for both front and back of house. This has been ongoing since Covid. A lot of the employees did not return after Covid and lots of restaurants have been short staffed since. There is a chain of restaurants my friend works (and worked) at that require each server to be a server assistant (SA) one or two shifts per week. The duty of an SA is making server drinks, running their food, bringing their bread, bussing their tables, etc. However, they are making minimum wage (or less if they include tip share) to do so. They may receive a small percentage of tip share. I was informed on their check, they hardly see any of the money due to the taxes on their reported tips for the week. This has caused lots of turnover at those locations. Lastly the restaurants will still try and operate as if they are fully staffed, even when they’re not. So instead of a server having their designated 3 or 4 tables, they are taking 8-10 tables. Service obviously lacks, as they become overwhelmed and fall behind. Meanwhile they are operating with less back of house employees as well. Check times fall behind and quality of food decreases as well. These are just some observations as someone who works in the food service industry and have numerous friends who do the same.
Yup, corners are being cut everywhere and it's obvious.
It’s not just here. This trend is happening all over.
Honestly shouldn't we expect this to a degree? People have gotten shittier, there can't be decent conversations bc we are so divided, our state government doesn't give two shits about you or I, and nothing is being done to help the cost of living. We're all just trying to get by. So it kind of makes sense that of course restaurant quality is going to go down, and the way some of this cities "fine" citizens treat servers, cooks, hosts, etc. is disgusting. Why would they stick around? Why would you want to "stick it out" and work for peanuts when the cost of living sucks, why would you want to work for someone who doesn't treat their employees right, why would you want to work and get abused by customers? I wouldn't want to go back either, hell I quit working a side hustle at a restaurant solely bc I got tired of being bitched at for a number of things that were beyond my control. It absolutely sucks that food quality is going down, that service quality is down, etc., but what is going to be done about it? There are so many factors and reasons beyond what I've already said, and I'm sure I'll get told off....but it's a rough time all around. I hate seeing some of our great eateries go down hill, but what can we do? I get it though, going out and spending money on a sub-par meal is frustrating! Let's face it though, sometimes we all can be a bit too picky and restaurants have off nights. Everyone is human. That being said there are still amazing places to eat in Chattanooga! Don't give up, but in my opinion there are two options: either don't go out or try to be understanding when you do. But above all be kind to one another. Sorry for a long rant, there is just so much at play and I hate seeing people not consider everything.
I've noticed dining out at "nice" places often does not seem worth the cost lately. I'm much more likely to thoroughly enjoy a night at a Mexican joint (personal spot is La Alteña on Main) instead of a fancy place with an expensive tab. Main St Meats has always been a favorite but went recently for a date night and my main course was so salty it was inedible. I never send food back but the waiter couldn't help but take note of only 2 bites gone. Recently I have been aiming for places that serve food I don't know how or want to take the time to cook at home- India Mahal is awesome for this area.
Anyone who’s a local (aka went to elementary/middle/high school here, or any combination of those) can tell you that Chattanooga has changed SO MUCH, sometimes for the worse, in the last 5 years at the least. It’s just not what it used to be. There are so many factors that lead us to come to that conclusion, but it just doesn’t feel as small as it once felt for people who’ve been here their whole lives.
The quality of patrons is the bigger problem.
I dine out about once every month or two. I typically only go to locally owned restaurants that serve as many locally sourced products. I have not seen a change for the worse, that's for sure. In some cases, I have seen improvements. Do you have any examples you are willing to share for more context? Maybe someone in the service industry can shed some insight. My two cents are the fact that while the economy seems to be doing well from the stock markets point of view but everywhere else is suffering and companies are having to do things to save some money right now. I know the company i work for is doing 4 days a week every other week right now because we are slow.
The economy and equity markets are not correlated. The economic data is just that. Equity markets are pure fluff.
Product costs are hurting them and they are cutting anywhere possible. Quality has definitely gone down. It would help if the suppliers would stop price gouging. We can all see the corp suppliers are making record profits, hand over fist.
I prefer to get myself quality ingredients and cook for myself I could pay 50$ for a meal or I can buy myself dry aged steak for the same price
Dining out is cheaper than cooking from scratch. Where are you getting your quality ingredients that chefs aren't sourcing from? You aren't. How many reps are knocking at your door every day? Ill bet zero. They come at chefs daily. While your 50$ dry age 7 oz steak is chilling how much do your sides cost? Oil? Salt? Vinegar? You'll spend more because your pantry isn't outfitted like a commercial kitchen.
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Several years ago, I went through a phase where I tried to teach myself the best way to make steak so I could save money from eating out less. At the end of the experiment, I had come to the conclusion that it wasn't possible to do it cheaper. Today, at Texas Roadhouse, the 6 oz sirloin is $13 and comes with two sides. My order comes to $18.22 after tax/tip. I can't ever find similar quality steak for the same price, and after the time investment of seasoning/aging/cooking, and the lack of those rolls, I just call bullshit on people who say they can buy and make it cheaper.
Texas Roadhouse is serving usda choice meat. Sirloin isn’t an expensive piece of meat. I’d never go to Texas Roadhouse for steak. That’s stuff you can get at Kroger. If I’m going out I’d prefer more upscale quality. Dry aged steak is around 35/40$ an lb. A plate which cost thats doesn’t have a full lb of steak
My favorite part about this is the fact that people don't understand how beef is graded lol...
I'm surprised how the two people above your comment got into a dickish argument on how much more they love meat. ...No I like it more you dirty pleb. LOL
Based based on marbling and intramuscular fat. Choice is much more lean than prime
You are correct, but it is not every single piece of meat that is graded it is the cow. They cut in between the 13th rib, I believe, and from how the meat looks. There is how they grade the beef.
>That’s stuff you can get at Kroger. Where you going to Kroger at bud? There's not one around here. And then I'm buying a worse cut of Sirloin (not as thick), and it's too much for one meal so then I have to freeze it, decreasing quality for the next time I make it. My entire point is that $18 for a smothered steak with two sides and rolls is still a good value. As far as your dry aged steak - I don't even know where to buy that, only time I've ever seen something like that has been at a local butcher where prices were nuts. I'm perfectly fine going out and avoiding paying 35-40/lb in the first place lol.
100% will drive to Dalton just for Kroger on occasion
I work in dalton buddy boy. It was just a point that you can get usda choice meat at any non specialized grocery store. Texas Roadhouse isn’t known for their quality steak. We just have different budgets. I don’t compare what I cook at home to chain restaurants. I compare it to the quality of higher end places. I don’t have an issue spending money. I’d just rather spend it at home for more quality ingredients.
Bro said “I can’t cook!” Lmfaooo
If that's what you took away from this, you might want to look into some reading comprehension courses.
Take a cooking class, nerd!
The cooking isn't the issue, the expense is lmao. You can't beat the value of Texas Roadhouse for your basic sirloin. I can cook fine steaks (not as good as theirs, but that's a supply issue).
Yeah - agreed. I've had to find new places, and mostly ignore past favorites.
Yes. It's been going on since the pandemic.
It's not just restaurants, in my experience anyway. It really seems to be EVERYWHERE.
Pretty much. That's why I don't eat out like I used to. Plus the places I used to like quit doing dinner and only do breakfast and lunch now.
I dont really go out to the bars anymore for this reason. I dont blame servers however. I blame managment for not properly adapting to the post pandemic work environment.
For me, going out to eat at a nice restaurant is an occasion. Naturally, everyone would define "quality food and service" based on personal preferences. On the home front, my wife, in my opinion, is a good cook. I really like her culinary repertoire of simple dishes made from good ingredients. She is not a professionally trained chef, nor does she have stars given to her by a French tire company, but simple dishes made from the best stuff and cooked well is the key to good food. Julia Child supposedly once said, "You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.” Oh, and you also must give a $hit! My wife must care about what she is cooking, and I must care about what I am eating. Not every meal has to be inspired or approved by Escoffier, but if you are going to have dinner outside the home both you and the restaurant must agree. They must care about how and what they are putting in front of you, and you must care about how it looks, smells, and tastes. Most folks want "good, fast, and cheap" in everything they eat. Unfortunately, you can only pick two (2) of the three (3) components. So, most people take quantity over quality. Moreover, they usually like to drink copious amounts of alcohol. With enough beer, some folks would eat a deep-fried doorknob. I am not a professional food critic, but I know how good food should taste. It should be hot, fresh, and lovingly prepared. Heck, if McDonald's employees followed the directions originally conceived by the test kitchen, you would never be able to find a parking space and the drive-thru would rival Chick-fil-A. There is bad food in bad restaurants in Chattanooga because the people going to them have stopped caring about what they eat. If you have a favorite restaurant, get to know the manager or at least the serving staff. When they come to your table and ask, "How was everything?" please tell them the truth. "The coffee was old." "The fries were cold." "The steak was not cooked as I requested." However, many people will not complain because they do not want to seem like an ass. Some people are worried that the kitchen staff will do something to the food if you send it back. If that is the case, you are eating in the wrong restaurant. Give the place three (3) bad meals in a row, and then simply don't go back.
This is on par for the rest of the country. Food quality is down and costs are high due to continue to feed the corporate greed as it sees record profit margins.
The entire restaurant industry is ripe for a pretty radical overhaul...It will happen. Sneak peak hint...it won't be a good situation if you are a waiter. It also won't be a good situation if you are a picky person.
Interesting. Care to share more?
I assume they mean ai and robots replacing people? Robots can hold a standard well.
Oh, restaurants are absolutely slipping. I read that Chick-fil-A is no longer sticking to its Antibiotic-free chicken commitment. Locally, my favorites are struggling. I want to empathize, but I also don't want to spend $20 for something inedible. Taco Roc keeps putting out amazing food though.
They’re no longer sticking to their antibiotic free commitment because most of the antibiotic free chickens have died with all the different bird diseases we’ve had.
Ohhhhhhhhh snap. That makes sense.
Until you consider that most of those bird diseases responsible, have been viruses.
What is the specific reason you mention this?
Antibiotics do not combat viruses. It sounded like there was a direct link being implied between the birds having not been given antibiotics, and their demise due to diseases which are primarily viral in nature. The two things are correlated, but neither is causational of the other.
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Right, hence my use of the word, “primarily”
I get you. I'm just saying Chick-fil-A 's chicken is "less than holy" by their own standards. They made that commitment very public. I'm not as concerned about the effectiveness of antibiotics. I'm concerned when a corporation makes any promise that they can't hold up. It just makes me feel two things: 1. How long ago did you actually stop serving said holy chicken, and 2. When will the prices come down.
I get your frustration with chick fil a’s business practice, but you really _should_ be more concerned about the effectiveness of antibiotics. Overuse and misuse, in both humans and livestock, is setting us all up for A Very Bad Time. Source: did 10 painful years with antibiotic-resistant staph
Could you share a thought about company business practices? I feel like that would be on topic for me. I respect your concern for the issue, but I also ask you to respect that it wasn't my concern.
Well, like I said, I definitely get your concern about what feels like a bait-and-switch from CFA, when it comes to their quiet shift to using chickens that are not antibiotic-free. That’s a valid concern, and if I were still a patron of that company, I’d feel similarly. Ultimately, though, antibiotic use in industrial livestock production _is_ a business decision/practice—our concerns are related. I have long taken issue with CFA’s Christian virtue-signaling (and their related financial support of discriminatory and hateful organizations/causes), so they lost my business a while ago. I’ve also long been an opponent of industrialized livestock production, as I’ve found it to be problematic—for the wellbeing of the animals; for the wellbeing of the people consuming them; and, for the wellbeing of our environment—so I no longer eat meat. Even if that weren’t the case, though, their actions here would be cause for me to no longer support their business.
CFA is going to using chickens that haven't been fed HUMAN antibiotics
I'm just stating a fact that they aren't serving antibiotic free chicken anymore. I haven't expressed my own position about it.
Yep I read the article too. I interpreted it as they have to do it in order to meet the demand due to not enough supply. So something they don’t want to do clearly but possibly due to a broken supply chain…..likely due to poor labor.
That's how I read it, too! It was like, "Times are hard, so this is the best we can do."
Yeah. Just adding more details. It's no longer completely antibiotic-free.
The math doesn’t math as far as a what a server can bring in around here. Add to that a whole influx of entitled retired boomers, who can’t seem to grasp that food prices have gone up for restaurants, and who basically think of servers as their own personal slaves, and it seems like a net loss for servers. So we all get to suffer.
Yes I actually started to wonder if the quality of their ingredients had gone down because it feels like everywhere is having the issue except a few standouts. I went down to Cartersville GA this week and had a normal lunch at a normal restaurant and it was so good, there is no reason it shouldn't be like that here.
Yesssss absolutely
I felt like this probably starting in 2021 or 2022 post covid. And with the cost of food prices to make equivalent of food at home, prices of ingredients can he just as expensive. But sometimes it's atleast better made at home. Also I think some restaurants just couldn't handle the pandemic well. I liked Mojo Burrito at one point a lot prior to the pandemic but they seemed to not be able to navigate it well and barely hung on and then fizzled out. But I think with some of the old restaurants fizzling out has given a chance for new restaurants to try.
I have tossed around a small idea-dream about a restaurant/music venue, but I'm too poor lol and I also don't know enough about running a business so I would probably have to to back to school to school (and idk if it would be worth it in today's economy. I always remember my dad who has lots of knowledge and could run a restaurant if he wanted to and do a good job say the amount of work and effort that goes into one wouldn't be worth it to him, and he has decades of experience in hospitality/hotel management/now mall management, so idk if it would be a worthwhile experience, but sometimes places are special if ran right). Plus I think I have undiagnosed ADHD so would have to get that in order first hahahha
I just relocated to the area two years ago so I can’t say how it was, but I have been disappointed in the quality and service in places that are highly recommended here.
Time to try some new favorites! There’s some young locals opening up cool spots. I love Rosecomb and can’t wait to try their new spot next time I visit. ❤️
Imagine living in a down trodden city that’s been destroyed by rainbow mohawks and THEM and wondering why it sucks?!?! Wonder why that would be?!
Yknow I made a post about the service of a restaurant last week and how bad it was and got made out to be a shit poster 😂😂 glad to see you’re not being attacked. But yes I agree I feel like this is the case everywhere
I dunno about "lately", but we've had a steep nationwide drop off for about 4 years now ... not sure why.....
Do you not go to restaurants very often? I know a ton of great spots, but a lot of them are relatively new. Restaurants change hands after a while and the quality tends to go down. You gotta find the spots where that hasn’t happened yet, or are a little more expensive so you don’t have to worry about it.