Beans on toast in a cafe, how much is reasonable to pay?
- Thread starter Lysander
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Fight me IRL, right now!! How very dare you!! Beans on toast is heavenly!
Caporegime
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People seems to purposely ignore and forget those when they think it should be like 99p. Profit, what profit? You should work for free, this aren’t a capitalist society! Lol
4-5x, generally. Gross profit should be 70-80% on the cost but that's averaged over the whole menu. Some items will be a higher to make up for those that are lower.
I'd say £4 max, but it's Brighton and stuff is expensive here. Also depends if you're talking half a tin of Heinz or freshly made with a house sauce etc. Is it Hovis or do they bake their own bread?
I own 2 restaurant's post covid its even worse. We need more staff to do the same amount of trade. Margins are tight, VERY tight. Even more so if you use decent ingredients.
I wish mate... Wet may be 70% but dry you'll be lucky if you get to 55% GP. Some items we hit 70% But others like our full english is pretty much a loss leader.
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I mean, when I do a menu I aim for 75% and generally hit it. I'm talking purely food cost here.
Our worst item is probably the grilled octopus which is about 50% GP, but probably costs us money after everything else. We only keep it because very few places do octopus here.
The problem is when you start costing a menu you may be right but by the time its printed your Fruit an veg have skyrocketed
AGAIN!!
Prices of raw have gone through the roof lately.
Caporegime
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I have access to all the trade cost for raw ingredients through work (except meat), almost everything has gone up. Some items 5%, some 10%, some 50%.
Pine Nuts doubled its trade price last year, it went from about £15 per kg to about £30 per kg.
Pine Nuts doubled its trade price last year, it went from about £15 per kg to about £30 per kg.
Soldato
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Lets see. These costs are based on the cost matrix at my old place. Also, how would you cost the wages of the staff? If it takes 3 minutes to make beans on toast are we saying its based on the chefs pay for those 3 minutes?
The toaster that I used to use was one of those self serve ones that you drop bread on and its runs along a chain belt as it toasts and drops out the back and down a chute to the guest. That cost circa £2 for a 4 hour breakfast service for example.
No rent as the company owns all but 2 properties.
Not sure on the insurance so make your own figure up here.
150g of beans about 5p
micro wave beans for 20 seconds. Hard to say but on the matrix it was cost at £2.50-£2.90 iirc. Thats for a full shift 7am till 9pm based on what we used it for during those times. Lets say 5p?
2 slice bread about 2p, with toasting, around 3p intoal
Chef wages to make said meal @£9.80. 81p based on 5 minutes from receiving ticket to plating and telling FOH its ready
FOH server to take it out around 30 seconds work 8p
Potwash staff to stack a plate and cutlery, slide in potwash machine, close lid, slide out and stack up on shelves. 50 seconds thats including the potwash doing its thing. make that 16p paid to the chef/potwash to do that job. Add in the cost of the potwash, per 7-10pm circa £5 per day to run. 1/2p
If my maths adds up ok £1.19 to make 2 slice of beans on toast. Minus insurance but I would imagine that would be in the 20-40p range.
I had a facebook argument with a women that complained that prices of her Latte had gone up despite now change in service.......PFFT
I explained to her the number of hands that her coffee beans had to go through from the planter to the picker to the distributor to the roaster to the retailer to the coffee shop to the barista etc.... They all want a chunk and then theres the equipment our Espresso machine was over 10 grand. Let alone the sugar and the biscuit they get too.. In clean cups I may add
My first thought was actually £3.50 so surprisingly, this is actually an accurate answer for a change
You hiring?
My first thought was actually £3.50 so surprisingly, this is actually an accurate answer for a change
It was a standard off the cuff response at first but I realised it might actually be a reasonable answer.
Had to be relevant at some point!
I know thats probably tongue in cheek but
We are actually but its up Norf. Were looking at extending our opening times during the week (currently close at 6pm) and looking at creating a menu for Friday and saturday nights. The town is on the up again. So looking for a third chef so we can open mon/tues and create the weekend trade too..
A decent chef is hard to come by. They are the main part of the business we try to keep them happy. (which as a chef I'm sure you appreciate they are usually stroppy beggers..lol)
Soldato
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I say chef. But its Mitchell and butlers all kitchen staff are called chef. I need to add that £ per hour is more than what I was on and I was a team leader our chefs were on 15p less than me.. iirc I was on £9.21
In the cafe in our local village it was £1.50 before lockdown but I never had it because a full english was £3, the hipster cafe round the corner from my dads the full english was about a tenner but never saw the cost of beans on toast.
I used to have it most mornings in the canteen where I used to work, 2 slices of toast, 1 scoop of beans and 1 egg (poached or fried) was £1.12 and a damn site cheaper than bacon or sausage buttys.
I used to have it most mornings in the canteen where I used to work, 2 slices of toast, 1 scoop of beans and 1 egg (poached or fried) was £1.12 and a damn site cheaper than bacon or sausage buttys.
Caporegime
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OP should think himself lucky at £3.50
