Cost of living crisis bites for restaurant
A restaurant owner has said the current cost of living has forced him to raise menu prices.
Derek Mather owns Artisan in Wishaw with his wife Fiona and the restaurant has been a staple of the town for 14 years.
But with costs all around us spiralling, they have been forced to raise prices for just the third time since they opened their doors.
Derek said the cost of gas, electricity and i ngredients for their menu have all risen “astronomically”.
He told the Wishaw Press: “We debated raising costs for a while, but we have finally decided it is the best move.
“This is happening across the sector, as costs are just rising constantly. Basic ingredients like chicken, tomatoes, and onions are costing us more than they did just last month.
“And obviously gas and electricity prices are also up. The gas prices were up a couple of hundred pounds, but electricity has almost doubled in price for us.
“After the last two years of struggle we really thought things were starting to get better but these price hikes have hit everyone hard.
“The price i ncreases f or customers aren’t major. For example, our set menu prices are now a pound more expensive. Just that small increase will be really helpful for us.
“Our customers have been great and all completely understand, some have even told us that we should have done it a long time ago as we have always been very reasonably priced.”
While dealing with rising costs, Derek has said there is still an issue in the industry of no-shows to bookings.
Artisan struggled with this last year and started to ask people for a deposit for bookings.
But Derek said that this is still happening and is urging those who can’t make bookings to call and cancel.
He said: “People are still not showing up to bookings, which leaves us out of pocket.
“Sometimes when we ask for the deposit people don’t have their card on them so we leave it.
“But then they just don’t show, and when we call them to see if they are coming they will just hang up.
“It is really annoying as that’s a booking we will make no money from. It takes 10 seconds to book a table and 10 to cancel, we understand people can’t always make it but cancellation is always better than nothing.”