Restaurant disappointment... (San Antonio, Anton: sales, how much, buy)

[SsnTktHldr]

We had dinner at Biga on the Banks Saturday night at it was AMAZING! From start to finish, unbelievable! My first ttime there. A little pricey but well worth it for the 10 of us for my wife's b-day. I honestly cannot say any aspect of the meal was anything less than perfect.

The diappointing part is that at 10:00 on a Saturday night, the place was almost empty! Come on people, support your local restaurants. I have heard many rumors of restaurants going under, 95% of which have been untrue, but how long will that be the case? I don't want the economy to come back and most of the places I love to eat have closed their doors! Don't order the high dollar bottle of wine, but get out and eat. This town is full of great places!

[cr1039]

We went to Bin555 for lunch on Saturday. The food and service were fantastic and we ordered a tried and true delish bottle of wine.

We choose to sit near the bar becuase the other rooms were too quiet....

[rd2007]

umm, places that are "a little pricey" are probably going to go the way of the dinosaurs. I do not think there is much of a market for them here in SA or anywhere else anymore. I've never been fond of spending a lot of money on something that's going down the toilet the next day and I think a lot of other people are seeing quite a few things as just not worth the money. Think about how much groceries you could buy or how many meals you could eat at Wendy's for the price of a $100+ meal. It's a lot and it would take over a week to have all that go down the toilet..

[kevcrawford]

10 on a Saturday is late for a lot of people. Biga has been there a long time because it gets great support. We've got a lot of restaurants that have been around for a long long time with a great following. 10 is just late for this area. It's not like NY or Chicago.

[Eleanor Rigby]

Biga has been around a long time. Before it moved downtown, it was on Locust and McCullough in the old Paesano's location. I think they will do fine.

[cr1039]

^^ Is 10pm really that late? I would figure that the people who are still in the place at 10pm sat down for dinner at 8pm or later - which is not "late" for a Saturday night dinner.

I assume that one would set aside at least 2 hours for a nice dinner at Biga? Especially if one did not have an engagement to attend later in the evening?

[SsnTktHldr]

The way of the dinosaurs? You couldn't be more wrong, as the amount of new restaurants opening in SA and all over the US shows.

And SA is one of the top 10 cities in the US not only in population, but dozens of other categories. 10pm is not late to be out to dinner, no matter which of those top 10 cities you are in.

[rd2007]

I think these guys know a little more about restaurants.. News Release | Press Room | National Restaurant Association

and it's not hard to see it every day either. A lot of places are not like they used to be, except for those that serve value meals.. McDonald's January same-store sales up 7.1 percent - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/McDonalds-January-samestore-apf-14292334.html - broken link)

San Antonio will probably buck the trend as far as overall numbers, but I can see some overpriced ones dropping off into the tar pits

[Buffyfan]

I doubt it...We San Antonians LOVE our food!!!

[Chaka]

I don't see Biga going anywhere. It's a long established local, has always done well.

The ones likely to not survive are the more middle of the range places, not the high end, long established places with a devoted clientele.