Friday at night.
The couple worked all week and rewarded themselves with an outing to a neighborhood restaurant.
But
instead of getting a gold medal, he gets a bronze one
: he scrutinizes the menu, skips the appetizer (the panera will be exhausted), chooses two pasta dishes (the meat will be left for next time), a bottle of wine from lower value and the dessert is shared.
Better coffee, we drink it at home.
Buenos Aires gastronomy
is
not immune to the impact of the economic situation and adjustment.
But, as in the proposals, there is no uniformity in how that impact hits.
It depends a lot on the profile of the restaurant, the place where it is located, and its clientele.
Yes, there is a consensus, according to data that comes from the main chamber of the sector and with which gastronomic experts who are references agree, that there is a drop in sales.
And that this drop in billing is directly related to
the change in habits of diners
who do not give up, but today are more
efficient
when it comes to spending.
Rafael Miranda is a member of the Restaurant Chamber of the Association of Hotels, Restaurants, Cafes and Cafes (AHRCC) and is also vice president of the Business Federation (FEHGRA).
He provides a federal perspective, but shares
Buenos Aires numbers
.
“
The average drop in volume is 20%
.”
But things are quite diffuse.
In traditional pizza and coffee type restaurants they are at that number, but an intermediate restaurant in Palermo falls 40% compared to the end of last year - estimates the businessman -.
He draws attention to the fact that there are businesses that have dropped substantially and others that are maintaining the level.
It is seen that businesses with cheaper prices are more efficient in terms of quantity of cutlery.”
Julián Díaz, owner of the La Fuerza and Los Galgos bars and the Roma pizzeria,
estimates the drop in turnover at 30%
.
“The drop in cutlery is smaller.
But people spend less,” he says.
Located respectively in Chacarita, Centro and Chacarita, he says that what happens in his three locations is “a general snapshot” of the situation and that the impact was equal.
“There is less after-meal, less dessert, less coffee is ordered, less water.
All of that can change your ticket a lot
,” she points out.
He says that in Rome, for example, the sale of special pizzas was almost double that of mozzarella and that today mozzarella sells much
more
.
Miranda agrees that the client is changing habits.
“
There are dishes that are coming out less.
In grills, the large chorizo steak sells less and the entrails sell more.
Or the tortilla comes out more than the tails.
“Everyone is looking for value,” she posits.
Díaz adds that last year
there were dishes that were removed due to their price
, such as gizzards or prawns, so as not to "scare" the consumer when he sees the menu.
There is another point on which the two gastronomics fully agree:
one of the items in which people cut back the most is wine
.
According to Díaz, only in the first two months of the year the drop was 30%.
Customers are ordering fewer bottles or choosing lower-priced labels than they drank before.
Less toasts.
Wine consumption fell 30% in some restaurants.
Photo Martín Bonetto / Archive
From Mendoza, Walter Bressia, president of Bodegas de Argentina, supports the drop in sales but affirms that the price is not the determining factor because the wine had an increase that accompanied inflation.
He puts the focus on the zero alcohol law.
“We anticipated that it was going to be a hard blow for the industry.
People do not consume in restaurants because they are afraid, they put controls at the exit of the gastronomic centers and the Uber or Cabify have a high price," says Bressia, and reveals the concern of the sector because "
the restaurants in Buenos Aires are a very important sales point
: the consumer learns about the wine there and then also buys it at the wine store or supermarket.”
The impact of tourism
At the end of 2023, a good part of the country and the Capital as the epicenter experienced a boom in foreign tourism.
Tourists continue to come, but
with inflation in dollars we are no longer as competitive for them
.
“In Ushuaia and Calafate the winter season is spectacular.
But in Mendoza the influx of Chileans and Brazilians is slowing down.
In the north there is a similar decrease,” analyzes the vice president of FEHGRA.
In a recommendation by the Michelin Guide they show concern about the behavior of tourists in a restaurant where a cover can approach 100,000 pesos.
“It's 100 dollars.
Buenos Aires today is expensive for foreigners,” they graph.
In one of the most visited wineries in Mendoza, Brazilians who went for the most expensive menu went down to the intermediate one or directly to the cheapest one.
“Argentina is still cheap.
But
it is no longer given away
,” Miranda remarks.
The forecast of what is coming
Díaz fears that
the drop in billing will impact employment
.
He says that they did not cut staff, but that they did not replace those who left and that is why they had to stop a plan to extend hours at one of their locations.
“The fear is whether work will continue to decline.
And, also, how is this creative gastronomy going to be sustained because
access to technology today is almost impossible
,” she says.
Miranda warns of two other problems that add to the drop in consumption:
the increase in rates and the increase in rents
.
But she wants to seek optimism: “We are like the majority, seeing a panorama that is not good but with favorable expectations.
“You want to have hope.”
However, he points out that “places continue to open all the time” and says that there are cafes that are working fully in shopping malls because people go for a walk more.
Thus, he warns of
a potential new phenomenon
: in a shrinking market, gastronomy may continue to appear as a possible option.
That is what Iñaki López Viñaspre, president of the Sagardi group, says, who states that comparing February 2024 against February 2023 they are at the same sales values: “When other options become more exclusive, going out to restaurants is joy and maintaining social relationships. .
We are a possible way out
.”
Collaborated: Roxana Badaloni (Mendoza Correspondent)
ACE