Before I get to the main purpose of this post, I’d first like to address this, which was cited by Atrios.
CHANGE OF MENU. Jeffrey’s at the Watergate, a restaurant that served Texas cooking, has closed its doors, reports The Washington Post. The restaurant, which claimed to be a “‘hot spot’ of the First Couple,” served such meals as “Secretary Evans Roquefort and tomato salad” and “Condoleezza Rice lemon meringue tart with raspberry sauce.”
The restaurant has returned to its old name, Aquarelle, which was a popular spot during the Clinton administration; it now serves Mediterranean cuisine. The Post writes that this is “not a symbol or a sign or a portent.” Ever the optimists, we beg to differ.
“Secretary Evans Roquefort and tomato salad” and “Condoleezza Rice lemon meringue tart with raspberry sauce”??? What the hell kind of “Texas cooking” is that? That’s the sort of frippery that faux-populist Texas politicians (of all stripes, I might add) mock about places like Washington and New York.
Look, it’s very simple: There are many restaurants in Texas at which one can find a wide variety of cuisines (see here for a sample of what’s available in Houston, for example), but there are only a few styles (such as barbecue and Tex-Mex, to name two) that can be correctly called “Texas cooking”. The examples cited are not among them.
Now then. According to this front-page Chron story, the high price of beef is giving restauranteurs heartburn.
“It’s killing us,” Sambuca Jazz Cafe chef Carl “C.J.” Johnston moans. “It’s gotten to where every time we sell beef, we lose money.”
[…]
“When you come to my restaurant, the waiters are going to push the fresh seafood specials,” Johnston confesses. “If we sell equal amounts of seafood and equal amounts of beef, we’ll be OK. We’ve got to get creative because it’s not economically sound right now to raise prices.”
Six months ago, a 10-ounce beef filet cost Johnston $8. Today, he’s paying $10.60, and by December, he expects to pay $12 or more for the same cut.
“It’s scary,” he said. “But can we not serve beef and stay open as a restaurant? I don’t think so. In Houston, Texas, you’ve got to have beef.”
You can blame Canada, at least partially, for the problem, but there’s an even bigger factor at work.
The United States shut down cattle imports from Canada after a lone cow was diagnosed with mad cow disease in May. According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Canada provided 7 percent of our beef supply prior to the ban. Although the U.S. government has partially lifted the embargo, the amount coming in is shy of earlier levels because live Canadian cattle are still barred.
“But that’s just a small part of it,” said Rick Hamilton of Chicago-based Allen Bros., which supplies beef to high-end restaurants nationwide. “This has actually been going on for several years. There’s been a steady decline of cattle because of drought conditions (in Nebraska and Kansas). The ranchers have nothing to feed them on. The number of cattle on feed has dropped by 8 percent. Right now, they’re holding back heifers to build up stock. But it’ll take 30 months before we really start to see results.”
While cattle production has slackened in the last decade, the demand for beef has increased.
Casual steakhouses saw a 12 percent rise in consumer spending over the past two years. And U.S. demand for beef has increased 10 percent since 1998, Texas Beef Council marketing manager Russell Woodward said.
The reason?
“People are very confident in the safety of beef,” Woodward said. “Now they’ve got permission to consume it.”
Blame Dr. Atkins.
“We did a little survey,” said Texas Land & Cattle Steak House President David Franklin, “and it indicated that 30-40 percent of our customers are on the (high-protein) Atkins diet.”
So far, restaurants here have not raised prices, but that may not last. You’re getting a bargain when you order that porterhouse, so enjoy it while you can.
