Beans on toast in a cafe, how much is reasonable to pay?
- Thread starter Lysander
- Start date
Biker cafes you want.
https://m.facebook.com/SamsCafeDenbigh/?refsrc=deprecated&_rdr
Gotta love the posters
"Tea £1"
"Cold drink £0.70"
"Food: Food available"
Can't remember how much the breakfast was because it's more a price per item iirc was like 20p per bacon or so
Caporegime
Yes it does, because the hole let’s the steam (moisture) escape, thickening the sauce. The brand of beans matters as well. Heinz are a bit thin, but Branston sauce is perfect for it. Little stir after 1 min, then another stir at the end. Piping hot thick beans guaranteed with no saucepan to clean up.
Many years ago I worked in a Little Chef and the price they could buy stuff for was crazy. They were buying a whole loaf of bread for 11p and something like the Olympic Breakfast worked out at about 54p for all the ingredients in total.
Hmm that's promising. By coincidence my wife just bought me a Sistema sandwich box for work, looks like a solid make.
This is the kind of thing it would be fascinating to hear more about. It would be great to hear from people who have actually worked in the industry and know how cheaply these things can be bought.
Caporegime
Sistema microwave stuff is great. I’ve got 2 soup mugs, the noodle bowl, the breakfast bowl and the plate.
Soldato
Permabanned
- Joined
- 12 Jan 2021
- Posts
- 1,726
im just smashing heinze beans on toast with lurpak salted butter.
enjoy the rest of the day in the office dreaming.
enjoy the rest of the day in the office dreaming.
The egg poacher is ace
Caporegime
I forgot, I’ve got the rice cooker too.
Soldato
Just had baked beans (done in the saucepan on hob so they thicken), a few strips of belly pork, couple of eggs and some fried bread for tea due to this thread. Was glorious.
Only on a pc related forum can we have 2 threads on baked beans 
Branston beans on an uncut loaf with butter, £2.95. Heinz on kingsmill and marge.....er no thanks.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/threads/who-makes-the-best-baked-beans.18929044/
Branston beans on an uncut loaf with butter, £2.95. Heinz on kingsmill and marge.....er no thanks.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/threads/who-makes-the-best-baked-beans.18929044/
I had this abomination of a 'steak pie and tatties' with some Branston beans last night due to the thread (not sure if I even notice the difference between Branston and Heinz tbh)
https://www.sparscotland.co.uk/prod...h-of-strathmore-steak-pie-tatties-310g/229125
was tidy as
Soldato
Sainsbury's own brand are the best. They also seem to thicken up the most too.
Soldato
Man, 39 posts to see a post like this that takes into account the some of the real costs involved.
I own a couple of restaurants, Gives me a little more insight
Why don't you give us something of breakdown.
Theres so many variables
Some costs that most people wont know about
PPL/PRS in order to play background music it can cost £1000's per year.
Up until last year we had to pay the council £150 per outside table per year for the pavement licence.
Postmix is more expensive than bottles of coke. That was a shock for me.
Electrical safety cert. Ok only every 5 years but it still cost nearly £1000
Canopy certification for insurance
10+ appliances in the kitchen all 3kw. Most on full whack everyday
Commercial fridges and freezers at £2k a pop because domestic ones cant handle being opened and closed 100 times a day, and killing someone because your fridge temps are now 14c doesn't sit well.
Post covid. Extra staff to do the same amount of work.
Rent, Business rates. Telephone, Internet. PDQ machines, The dang till system is the best part of £100 pm
PL insurance
EL insurance
Most business will need the above but may not have such tight margins
Bins cost £100 per week to be emptied.
And all that is before, Website, advertising etc.
I put some retractable awning up this year to help with the winter trade and when it rains. £20k
Screens to create a barrier outside and double up as covid dividers inside just over £5k
Theres so many other "hidden" costs.
Most kitchens I know get around 55% GP. You can design a menu that is 70% GP easy. But thats without any wastage. It doesn't take too many dropped plates or burnt burgers. Or customers ordering the wrong thing but swearing blind they didn't to hurt your GP.
Everything takes time. The plates need clearing before going in the dishwasher. Dishwasher cleans and sanitises a full load in 3 mins so you know that aint cheap. Cutlery needs someone to polish it etc
Some places can run on less than 30% staff costs. I know when I ran an Oneill's we got 27% of the previous weeks takings to spend on staff for the following week. Restaurants post covid would struggle to do that now.
Its VERY easy to lose money.
Commercial equipment can be pretty expensive. Our espresso machine was £10k. Glasses get broken. Our coffee cups and saucers cost just over £5 each. When the staff drop a tray it brings a tear to my eyes.
The baked beans on toast is a good argument.
All of the previous posters costings might be correct. But then factor in them going to the supermarket to buy the ingredients. Then the time it takes for them to cook it, then the time to tidy up afterwards and then the costs for throwing away the packaging that those ingredients came in £4.50-5.00 doesn't seem a lot anymore.
Don't forget your also paying to help keep the place open when winter hits and trade drops off to 30-40% of the VERY short summer season.
Since owning a business in hospitality I have a very different outlook.
I also run a team of nearly 50 drivers and that is way easier than 2 restaurants with 10 staff.
I saw a nice Ferrari drive past the other day. My mrs said you could have had a couple of them but no! you wanted a restaurant
Owning a restaurant id the most expensive way to eat for free.
Wow. I can waffle on