Whisknladle Seafood Restaurant & Bar

Just this past month, I recieved a phone call from a San Diego Union Tribune reporter, wanting to know if I would care to comment on the financial duress that Restauranteurs are facing and what we are doing to cope with it.At the time, I did not care to participate as going “on the record” is probably not the most prudent thing to do for a 20 something with less experience than many others and unproportianately  so, a bigger mouth.However, I do feel that since you have found your way to us here at Whisknladle, I wanted to share something with you in the hopes of soliciting your help.The golden age for restaurants has certainly passed.  That is not to say that there aren’t wonderful, committed and talented people out there doing some incredible things but the pressures to go corporate or compromise and cut corners are certainly there.Some blame McDonalds and the Mcdonaldization of the world, others blame the irrefutable laws of simple economics of supply and demand or Marx himself, the War and escalating gas prices, the mortgage meltdown and the ever increasing cost of labor and the ever weakening strength of the $$$.As my father so eloquently put it, “Son, welcome to your first recession.”So as we try and juggle the rising cost of dairy, beef, produce, foreign wines, utilities, even the rising cost of napkins and just about everything else, we come back to this reporters question.What are we doing to cope with it?Walter Bradford Cannon, an American Physiologist 1st coined the term, fight or flight response to denote a very basic animal behavior for self preservation where some animals sometimes fight or run like hell or even both depending on the situation.We are faced with that very same dilemma, do we suck it up and stick it out and stay true to our commitment to make everything in house and work exclusively with locally farmed produce no matter what the cost, or do we cut quality, cut corners and start compromising who we are and what we set out to do?The obvious answer as A) put up our dukes and fight…Call me crazy, but like any proud captain, I will go down with the ship if I have to.So this is where you come in…Please make your dining decisions carefully and support restaurants and other business that are staying true to themselves in these challenging times. Go out of your way to go local and to go green whenever humanly possible.And one last thing, for those of you who have been so supportive these last three months, please continue to spread the good word.We wish you health, happiness and a full belly…