Business Simulator

Prime Cost

You own Marrow & Vine.

46 seats on a neighborhood corner, a kitchen that can plate about 77 covers a night, and $46,000 in the account.

Two percentages decide this business. Food cost and labor cost, added together and divided by sales, make PRIME COST. Under about 60% you have a restaurant. Over about 65% you have an expensive way to feed strangers. The cruel part is that volume does not fix it. Every kitchen has a number of plates it can send out properly. Past that number each additional cover costs more to produce than it brings in, so a packed dining room at 70% prime loses money faster the busier it gets. You will feel that at least once this year, probably in December.

Twelve months, one decision each. Reputation lags the plate and the floor by about a quarter, so tonight’s service is next season’s traffic. Morale decays quietly until the line quits all at once. The walk-in compressor does not care what your P&L says. Every year plays out differently (different situations, different numbers), but nothing here is luck. If February closes the doors, the decision that closed them was probably made in a menu meeting in July.