I'll have what she's not having

Thinking about a fabulous meal last night at the Five and Ten reminded me of a  recent conversation about ordering the same thing as others at your table. Five and ten has an earlybird three course prix fixe, which even at the new price of $24, is a steal. In my experience, there are always two options. I had one, and my date had the other. It strikes me, however, that a party of three or more would be less likely to order the prix fixe, because of the inevitable duplication. Theoretically, some could order a la carte, and others the menu, but that creates the kind of price differential among meals that can lead to grumbling when the check comes. My guess is that a table is usually likely to go one way or the other between a la carte and a menu, and I wonder how that affects the bottom line for restaurants. It's hard to imagine putting together more than two prix fixe menus, and certainly, if you get to four prix fixe choices for a party of four, at least one diner will feel as if they got a carpaccio of Mr. Irrelevant. So all of this is to ask from those who might know better--is there a correlation between the size of a party and the a la carte vs. menu inclination? It seems as if there must be, and it would be interesting to know which direction that pushes the bottom line.

Comments

[rb]

sigh

five and ten is my favorite restaurant