You're right. When I was a child, we were considered very racy because my bestie was Italian and her Dad had restaurants, so I was made to eat spaghetti properly. My Mum was an amazing cook too so we ate very well at home. Today, when I think of all the different cuisines that we eat on a weekly basis, cooked at home, it's fantastic. The one thing I find sad, is that English food is often forgotten. It's actually very good but as with traditional French cooking, it often takes a LOT of time and many people just don't want to use their time to cook. Bring back wonderful hot, cold, sweet, savoury pies..... all our puddings, proper roasts......

My father was a chef, high end, for country clubs. Then @ 14 yrs old, my Spanish class took us to Mexico City for 9 days, 8 nights. At 18, I managed a seafood restaurant, sit down or take out, tiny hole in the wall place, I was also the Tempura cook. At 27 yrs old we took up scuba diving abroad. Honduras was our 1st trip. The chef @ that resort made Shrimp Louie.

We've eaten locally at a Polish restaurant. Pierogi's & BBQ'd Romaine Lettuce. We have friends from the UK we're dinning with on a regular basis. We've been Zip-Lining with them...and dinning out. Pho is popular in Colorado too. 🍶

As I recall Plllog, your Jewish? My father's family was too. From Czechoslovakia. Food is the common denominator.

I don't remember why I posted this, but I think maybe there were squabbles over authenticity. 😉 Nicole is spot on: I regularly see folks on TV, in many different contexts, talk about how important food is in their origin cultures. Partly, I'm sure, because food, even if approximated, ties is both to our pasts, and to our families, but it's clear that it's really almost everyone's really important heritage. Whether it's famous English roasts, even if the spit is electric, rather than turned by a dog on a treadmill, or common ground between minority families hundreds or thousands of miles apart making latkes or hamantaschen, or a full on community festival, wherever they settle, where all comers can sample baklava or buñelos.

AKAIK, the bad rap for English food was from what was served to visitors, especially in the big cities. I encountered some horrific stuff in London on my first visit, and a really good meal in an Italian restaurant run by Italians. The great roasts, pies and puddings might have existed in well established country pubs, and places the locals in the metropolis knew to go to, but the student traveller budget worthy places near the hostel around the corner from the British Library, not so much. I encountered the food of the bad reputation. Which I was warned about by a fellow student here who'd left his native London for sunny skies. But then, he also said that Londoners were grim and brusque. I approached them with a smile and assumption of niceness, the way one does in California, and they responded in kind, and seemed kind of happy to speak to a stranger who was happy. So I daresay, my schoolmate's view of the food was biased, too. And, to be fair, it's not like I could eat the fish.

Yes! All the way to Honduras...and the chef is serving us American food! It was pretty good. When I was 14 years old on THAT trip, my GF took us to her Uncles house in Mexico City. Her Aunt tried making us Pizza, said she got the recipe out of a Ladies Home Journal magazine. It used canned biscuits as the crust, plain tomato sauce, sliced ham(sandwich meat style) & mozzarella. We ALL liked it and thanked her for making us lunch...but she asked us honestly "How alike was it to OUR pizza at home?" We smiled and said "not even close"....but tried to assure her we LOVED her version!

Insufferably authentic Italian was very popular here for a couple of decades. They were very proud of themselves. Some had great food. Most had at least a couple of good dishes. A lot was trendy and boring. I've read that the classic American Chinese food is based n banquet food, not what people actually ate in China. Whereas, the local Vietnamese joint is supposed to be pretty well authentic. The first felafel place around here, decades ago, had the real deal, though many newer ones do not. Most of the Mexican restaurants aimed at the general population, especially chains, do not make food that tastes Mexican, and most specialize in street food, but it wasn't so long ago that California was in Mexico, and a great many of our people come from down South, and keep in touch, so keep things more authentic at the real restaurants. Since, so I've heard, there are supposed to be more than two dozen cuisines in Mexico, so take your pick.

Years ago, there was a French sandwich shop here. Great food. Not fancy. But special. Being French. Everything was just so. But moderately priced sandwiches.

What sort of sandwiches did the French place sell?

DD plans to have a beurre fromage baguette. I think Americans will not buy that sandwich without jambon but we'll see.

I went to China in 1977 with my grandparents, and we were feted many times with big banquets. The food was awful - 30 years of revolution had suppressed the fine cuisine and its ingredients. Went back in 2005 and the food was excellent.

Kind of sandwiches? Yummy. There was one with beef in it which I particularly liked, though in general, I don't prefer beef sandwiches, but I can't remember what it was. The owners/operators were French, and the food was recognizably French. But they were better at food than business, and it didn't last long.

Re menus, if it's a café, there needs to be a meat option of sandwich. She can make it an upsell. Maybe have a "charcuterie" upsell, since the word is popular. Starting level just the butter. I wouldn't advertise it as jambon beurre if it's not going to be just like you'd find in Paris. I mean the right baguette, the jambon de Paris, the salty French butter. At which point, this is a $25 sandwich, and doesn't really fit the vibe you were talking about. In fact, I'd leave out the French name, too. Maybe just call it "baguette sandwiches" but descriptive words in English. Much more approachable and doesn't set up expectations in the same way.

Food cost is a thing.

DD is planning a meat-light though not meat-zero offering. I guess alt food is a thing.

So, that's why upsells are good. You get to more than charge for the expensive bits, inc. labor and overhead. :)

How can a ham baguette be 25 dollars? Yikes!

Yikes even at our very French bakery chain Laurent, a “ right“baguette and French Jambon de Paris (?) is $10.00

I think it's a worker thing. A lot of people stopped working in food service during the pandemic. There's a state law requiring tipped workers to receive full minimum wage regardless of tips...if you can find workers...

French cafés lunch:

At one place, a croque madam is $23.95

Another has jambon de Paris for $17.75

Another has a croque madam for $18

I'm guessing the big difference is location. The first place is the only one on the Westside, i.e., higher rents.

Instructive. I didn't realize how big a difference there was.

I built a model for the cafe to see what traffic and ticket would be needed for a successful business. I can’t recall (it’s been awhile) what average price I assumed for food items, but I think it was something like $5 in the morning and $8 in the afternoon.

Now, whether we can get the necessary gross product margin at those prices remains to be seen. Maybe the Frenchie sandwiches are higher and the miso hummus sandwich is lower.

In general, around here (Portland) it is unusual to find any meaningful food item under $10. We are not as expensive as California but prices have risen a lot. A simple burrito is $12, a plain hamburger is $13, and that’s the cheapest places - $14, $16 are common. No sides.

DD wants to hover around $9 for her average sandwich For a third of a crusty baguette, plenty of salty French butter, good ham, seeded mustard, and cornichons, if she can offer that for $10 that price should be attractive. Then the miso hummus sandwich, being meatless, can maybe be $8. Some will simply have a muffin, hence the lower assumed average.

That’s the hope, anyway.

I get the idea of value for the money, but there's a science for success to restaurant pricing, and in a new business everything must be profitable. There are ratios, like the percentage of price the food should be, the labor should be, the other overhead. And profit. It should be easy to learn these. Try the restaurant association, universities with hospitality departments, etc. Prices should never be based on what a young persin wants to pay or feelings. Experience will decide what the market will bear, and what dishes are popular, but that has to slot in to profitable business practices.

DD and I went to the local foodie market. The selection of imported, local, gorgeous food is amazing. I don’t go there much. Have to save up, y’know.

They sell, and we sought, a jambon fromage sandwich for $11. It is half a very skinny baguette, excellent ham, very good local Brie cheese. They only make so many, and they always sell out. As they had earlier today.

We decided instead buy the makings for her jambon beurre sandwich, after checking my credit line of course.

The sandwich was: a third, or about 8 inches, of a fat baguette ($1.00 for the portion); slabs of imported French butter with plenty of sel de Carmague ($1.00); nicely folded and ribboned slices of their ham, pale and not too salty ($1.50); three sliced cornichons ($?); and whole grain mustard ($?).

It was an excellent sandwich. Redolent of rural afternoons in France, a bottle of Vittel and a delicious, sustaining sandwich in my hands, the backpack on my shoulders suddenly lighter.

We could, I am confident, sell that sandwich for $9 all day until she runs out. The food cost at retail was about $3.75. At wholesale, maybe $2.75? Under three dollars, anyway. Prep and assembly time per each, perhaps 30 seconds if well set up in quantity. Time to serve is just pulling the wrapped sandwich from the cold display case.

She needs to do this sort of calculation for each menu item.

Yup! Good exploratory outing. I think 25% cost of food might be a correct ratio. Something to check. Further savings—and tsuris prevention (bakery is closed so no sandwiches!)—if she can bake her own bread. Selling point. Make her own mustard preparation, too. :)

DD's friend S___ is a baker in his family's bakery. Their bagels are getting some distribution around town and he has started making baguettes. She might try using his baguettes, if they are the right type. Portlanders are nuts for local artisans with stories. S____ happens to be devastatingly dark, Latin, and handsome with tall Spanish cheekbones and the muscled shoulders and arms of a baker. We joke that we will have "meet the baker" events.

That sounds excellent! IME, the amazing sandwich shop here stoppped being amazing when they changed bakeries. If Baker Friend can provide baguettes of excellence with personal touch, yes it's a good idea. It would behoove your DD, however, to become a proficient baker of the baguettes in case friend elopes to Azerbaijan. ;)

I’m ever so relieved that I have closed my cafe that I ran for over 30 years and no longer lie awake worrying about costs and staffing. I found most items needed to be close to 25% food cost and cookies and muffins were much less (we never sold day olds so waste needed to be taken into account).

I hope your daughter will have budget for culinary software to help stay on track. It can be challenging to be aware of increases.

Buying ingredients like baguettes can be tricky because they don’t age well. We often were able to purchase local par-baked baguettes that helped manage inventory.

I think we will start very basic with food, drink, and merchandise margin software. I’ll build some Excel or Access and we’ll over time figure out what she wants to track and compute, then we’ll look for the right software package. It has to handle merchandise as well as food/drink.

Similar with scheduling software. Tip distribution will be easy, since DD will initially hold staffing to only two persons, she cannot receive any tips so the other person will get it all.

We’re planning to start with Square as the POS and card processor, get some experience, then switch to a better alternative.

One of DD’s friends does web design , photography, and social media marketing, they will be enlisted. Apparently a coffee shop’s Instagram presence is very important. So ” they” say. I’m skeptical. I follow a bunch of local coffee shops and restaurants, and - shrug. But I’m just a boomer.

Media presence is important. It's the equivalent of a brochure and acts as a business card. She can also do the talking to camera stuff, but I think a slant is necessary. A lot of what's out there is drivel.. It occurs to me that if she's doing interesting used books in French, that would be a good focus if she wants to do the talking thing (though, of course, I defer to the pro!). "Here I am at Le Petit Bistro, with a cup of Latte du Jour and this lovely edition of Sans Famille." Blather about the condition of the book and musings on the fascination with vagabond life and the precariousness of orphanhood, while sipping coffee and just once crunching the corner of a coissant. That could be very appealing! But I have no idea if it would be affective for luing customers or appeal to the correct demographic. Square is great for low volume transactions, because there are no minimums, but it shows in the high discount rate. I found the little machine worth the price. There is some reasonably powerful software in the app or device, as well. It's a good place to start,