Owning a restaurant is no piece of cake. A lot goes into what you see on the menu. It’s a balancing act of flavor, food costs and customer expectations. They’re decisions diners rarely see, but can make or break a business.
William Thompson, who co-owns Celebrity Delly in Falls Church with his wife, Julie Rossler-Thompson, is showing how the sausage gets made with a new blog called Behind the Slicer. Since launching it May 20, he’s covered a range of topics, including a deep dive on cheesesteaks and the role of a Jewish deli.
That smorgasbord is the idea, Thompson says. “Mainly it’s just my thoughts about food, the industry,” he says. But he also wants to let people know the thought process behind menu changes. “A lot of times I feel like a business changes something and there’s no outlet for the customers to actually understand why something happened. The hope is that with the blog, if something does happen, people understand why we’re going the direction that we’re going.”
Cost-Benefit Analyses
One topic he plans to cover is costs. In Northern Virginia, food prices have climbed 4.5% and the cost of dining out has increased 3.7% in the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Plus, Fairfax County’s 4% food and beverage tax, which affects Falls Church, took effect Jan. 1, adding to the existing 6% state sales tax. That brought total taxes on meals to 10%…