Airlines and hotels are running numerous promotions, cutting fares and room rates, offering bonuses, etc. However, I have not seen any significant promotions coming from restaurants, who must be suffering as much or more, in some cases, than the airlines and hotels.

So my question is this - has anyone seem any obvious price cutting, 2 for 1 deals, or other promotions from restaurants or restaurant chains?

JerryFF, a number of San Francisco restaurants have started offering discounts in conjunction with American Express. Recent postcard offers that I have received include $25.00 off a $50.00 dinner at Paragon.

The Fifth Floor restaurant, in the Palomar Hotel, has also quietly joined other restaurants by adding a new section to their menu of lower priced wines and such.

Also to note, the November issue of Food & Wine mentions that a number of establishments have been quitely lowering prices in light of current events and fewer diners. They are also asking readers to comment, online, about thier eating (dining) habits during this downturn at www.foodandwine.com. It would be interesing to see if people have cut back at all. Recession or not, good food is good food.

Other offers I've received include an additional American Express discount card good for a complimentary appetizer at selected San Francisco restaurants, including one of my favorites, Grand Cafe. I've received two American Express postcards, one for 50% off an entree at Piatti and another offer of free admission to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the purchase of a lunch at Farallon, in SF. Gosh, do I get targeted mailings or what.

Edited for additional/corrected copy



[This message has been edited by raffy (edited 11-13-2001).]

The San Francisco LiveFire closed a week or so ago. The one up north is still open though, I think there was only the two. They always seemed to be very empty, to be honest i never went there because they seemed to be really over priced.

I had dinner at 21st Amendment the other night and one of the owners said that they are revamping the menu, adding lots more lower priced dishes and cutting the prices of others. He indicated that the traffic has been picking up but is still way down and somewhat unpredictable. I was there on a Saturday night and the place was almost empty.

The price trend is definitely downward. I haven't seen too much blatent advertising of lower prices though.

A temporary and inventive price reduction:

The restaurant "P�ree" (in the hotel Residence) in Essen (Germany) has a promotion until 07-Feb-2003. The guest receives two dices with the bill. The guest has to dice once. If (s)he dices two "1", (s)he receives a discount of 2%. If (s)he dices two "6", (s)he receives a maximum discount of 12%.

[This message has been edited by LH738 (edited 02-01-2003).]

Yeah, I've eaten in restaurants that were a crap shoot!

Quite a while ago, John Frank(chef Dean Velasquez) at Market and Church Streets quietly morphed into Home, a lower priced comfort food haven for the Castro/Duboce Park area. The change meant lines out the door and a restaurant in the black. Mecca, 2009 Market St. is in the process of doing the same. I think changed menus and lower pricing all around, will appear in many of the higher-end restaurants suffering from empty tables after years of dot-com prosperity.

Home is great - but no longer with iDine. Forgot to tell my son that when he was scrambling to pay the check with his card. Bad mother.



[This message has been edited by lili-dui (edited 02-07-2003).]

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