Roasting Cocktail Weiners on the Hibachi
And a poll
I’m interested in how restaurants go about increasing their prices, and as discussed last week, surcharges are all the rage right now. (…And are causing rage.) This explainer by a restaurant owner in the LA Times befuddled me: she explained that if she “were to pass the costs on to our customers, we’d be compromising the vision and values that make us what we are.” I checked the menu online and her restaurant does impose a 5% “wellness charge on your bill to help cover staff benefits and operational costs.” I can’t make heads or tails of this. I created the poll below to see how y’all are feeling about surcharges, maybe that’ll clarify it for me. If you choose the third option, please elaborate in the comments!
Roasting Cocktail Weiners on the Hibachi
Continuing the hibachi/teppanyaki journey from last week! This profile of the founder of Benihana, Rocky Aoki, is interesting, and it features my favorite restaurant critic (and total, unabashed shill), Clementine Paddleford.
A little feature on winter entertaining. It’s so interesting how language changes.
I’m actually surprised that this ad is aimed at women, since grilling is so associated with masculinity. And check that typo!
Teppanyaki was getting trendy by the mid-1960s.
And Benihana’s national expansion made it a staple.
And less than 10 years later, “hibachi” and “teppanyaki” were used interchangeably in the U.S.
Thank you for reading Smart Mouth. If you'd like to make a one-time gift, I'm on Venmo and PayPal.
If you liked the newsletter today, please forward it to someone who’d enjoy it, and tap the heart icon above or below, which will help me reach more readers. I appreciate your help, y’all!
Please note: Smart Mouth is not accepting pitches at this time.
This newsletter is edited by Katherine Spiers, host of the podcast Smart Mouth.
A TableCakes Production.
You can decline the surcharge?? I had no idea 😄
Personally I think they should just increase the prices and let people decide whether to eat there or not. Why should we be in charge of deciding if their staff deserve benefits? I don’t get it.