Tricks Restaurants Use to Protect Their Bottom Line

From AOL.com:

You’ve seen it all over the news lately: Food prices are up while dining budgets are down. So what’s a struggling restaurant to do? Many restaurant owners know there’s a limit to how much they can cut back on portions or raise prices before they drive customers away. So, here are some sneaky tricks they’re using to cut corners and protect their bottom line!

• Chefs are tweaking their recipes. That means, if a dish calls for two sticks of butter, they might use two sticks of cheaper margarine instead. Also, steak dinners may no longer feature the finest cuts of beef. Instead, you might get a less pricey flank steak – that’s been marinated and pounded into submission, to make it easier to cut into.
  
  
• Another sneaky new restaurant trick is serving food that’s not as fresh. Just as you’ve been paying more at the pump lately, restaurants are now paying “fuel surcharges” on all their food deliveries. So, one easy way to save money is to order more food, fewer times each week. That means you can’t expect to eat meat and produce that was delivered fresh that day. Instead, the salad you order on Wednesday might include veggies that arrived over the weekend.
  
  
• Recycling. We're not talking about the cloth napkins that get washed and reused each night. Efficient chefs know how to use every last scrap of food – even if it means turning last night’s leftovers into tonight’s chef’s special! So last night’s hamburger becomes tonight’s chili and yesterday’s meat and veggies wind up in tonight’s Soup Of The Day.
  
  
• Also, have you heard enough about the bad economy yet? Restaurants haven’t! In fact, one of the latest trends is for owners to post dire newspaper articles about high food prices near the waiting area. You might also see a sincere looking sign that says: “In order to maintain the high quality you expect, the chef has no choice but to raise prices.” It sounds sincere, but it’s really a subtle way to earn your sympathy – so you don’t think twice about spending more money. Believe it or not, it works!