Zagat's new NYC survey: tabs surge, dining frequency dips, women dissed

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 8, 1999 by Paul Frumkin

NEW YORK -- New Yorkers are spending more but dining out less, according to the latest Zagat New York Restaurant Survey, which also says Gotham's women diners are victims of sexism in service.

The Zagat poll of a record 19,227 surveyors revealed that diners in the Big Apple spent 4.7 percent more on a meal in 1999 than they did during the previous year, bringing the average tab to $33.17 -- the highest in the nation. That increase not only outstripped the national rate of inflation but also marked the steepest hike in spending since the recession began to force New York restaurant prices downward in 1990.

One factor contributing to the larger-than-normal rise could be the number of new restaurants making their debut with higher-than-average prices.

"There have just been a lot of new openings," Drew Nieporent, head of New York's high-end Myriad Restaurant Group, observed recently. "There are so many places people can go to dine out. The competition is ridiculous."

Zagat's survey indicates that numerous operations opened in 1999 with check averages running in excess of the $50-per-person threshold figure that for years was viewed by many restaurateurs as a kind of line in the sand. Moreover, Zagat's influential army of surveyors claimed that they left larger tips last year -- nearly 18 percent of the typical bill or about 1 percent more than the year before.

But while the easing of menu sticker-shock among formerly price-conscious diners is good news for New York restaurateurs who must contend with rising labor and lease costs, the continuing decline in the pace of eating out may be erasing some gains. The average surveyor dined out only 3.24 times per week this year, down from 3.27 last year and 3.4 times the year before that.

When stacked up against the national average of 3.7 times per week, that downward trend also could be viewed as a chastening slap at restaurant-proud New Yorkers. Houstonians, by comparison, lead the Zagat pack by dining out an average of 4.9 times each week, while restaurant-goers in Los Angeles are running neck and neck with the national average. San Francisco, another city celebrated for its great restaurants, just manages to squeak past New York with a 3.3-times-per-week average.

A bright spot for New York, however, is that it surpasses all other cities in the United States when it comes to frequency of takeout meals -- 3.8 times weekly.

In addition to wrestling with the gradual decline in dining-out frequency, New York operators found themselves having to contend with the chaos of an increasingly competitive marketplace. According to the survey, openings outnumbered closings by a lopsided 3-to-1 margin. Nearly 275 noteworthy restaurants opened for business over the past year compared with 96 shutterings -- down from 117 closures the year before.

In fact, the last year of the millennium welcomed several high-profile new entrants, including the Russian Tea Room -- a reopening, actually -- and Danube, Beacon, Berkeley Bar & Grill, Sono, Ruby Foo's, Pershing Square and others.

In the minus column, Northern Italian stalwart Parioli Romanissimo took its final bow, exiting the New York stage with such others as Raphael, American Festival Cafe, Barocco and Cipriani Wall Street. It also seems that the once-customary lines of tourists jostling for position outside of Manhattan's frenetic theme restaurants have thinned considerably, hastening the departure of Comedy Nation, Fashion Cafe and Motown Cafe. Of course, such newcomers as Disney's ESPN Zone and the Riese Organization's new Joe Franklin's Memory Lane have stepped up to take their places.

Theme operators -- as well as every other restaurateur in town -- would do well to post a conspicuous sign in their operations declaring, "It's the food, stupid!" according to results of the Zagat Survey. In answer to the question "What is the most important element in your appraisal of a restaurant?" surveyors overwhelmingly -- 93 percent -- cited the food. Service was specified by a mere 5 percent of diners, while decor, with a scant 2-percent result, barely even registered on the Zagat Richter scale.

In fact restaurants continue to do better in the overall ratings for food than they do for service, the survey points out. This year diners awarded food at New York restaurants an overall gradepoint average of 19.36, while service was shortchanged with a result of only 17.40.

Perhaps one reason for this two-point disparity is revealed in another important survey finding: Despite the fact that women continue to account for the majority of the New York Zagat surveyors, a full 80 percent of all diners polled believe that men receive better treatment in restaurants.

Nor were New York restaurants alone in their seemingly sexist service policies, the survey notes. Nearly three-quarters of those polled for the Zagat London survey -- in which male pollsters outnumbered women by a slight margin -- arrived at the same conclusion, as did 90 percent of the diners surveyed for the San Francisco guide. In addition to believing that lone women diners get worse seats and slower service, the survey also suggests that even when men and women dine out together, men still are treated better because servers generally assume that the man will be paying the check.