Restaurant revenues up, but owners have reservations about 2011

Even through the Great Recession, we trimmed the fat from our food budgets, switched to less-expensive entrees, maybe ordered water rather than a cocktail, but we didn’t stay home.

“Eating out at a restaurant is no longer a luxury; it’s a way of life,” said Peter Meersman, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association.

Now that the economy is bouncing back a bit, we, too, are splurging a little more on food and drinks at 1,681 restaurants licensed with the Larimer County health department.

The bounce was noticeable in year-end sales tax revenue generated by bars and restaurants in Loveland and Fort Collins.

Loveland eateries generated $3.54 million in city sales tax revenue in 2010, up 4.8 percent after dipping 2.2 percent in 2009.

In Fort Collins, restaurants and bars generated $8.87 million, up 4.9 percent from 2009, when revenue was basically flat.

Still, many restaurateurs are cautious going into 2011, as rising commodity prices for everything from beef to corn and flour threaten to negate any bump in business.

Everything's going up “There is a cautionary optimism that things are indeed getting better; however, the fear of looming food price increases has most restaurant owners concerned,” said Mike Howland, owner of Gib’s NY Bagels and vice president of the newly formed Northern Colorado chapter of the Colorado Restaurant Association.

Howland, who expanded his wholesale and retail operations last year with the purchase of the Olive Street Bakery, 120 W. Olive St., in Fort Collins, expects a 15 percent increase in food costs, well beyond the “moderate increase in sales.”

Gib’s uses 42,000 pounds of cream cheese a year and 7,400 pounds of flour per week. Those costs are up 40 percent and 30 percent respectively. Flour alone, he said, will cost $27,000 more than it did last year.

Steve Taylor of Hot Corner Concepts, owners of Enzio’s, the Moot House, Austin’s and Big Al’s Burgers and Fries, said beef and chicken prices are going up, too.