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PHOTO COURTESY OF MELISSA’S PRODUCE
lishment than a full-service restaurant,” says Sharokina Shams, vice president of market- ing-communications at the California Restau- rant Association, Sacramento, CA. “It seems the chains might be in a better position than the independents to absorb the higher costs.”
ere already has been a signi cant decline in the number of restaurants that attempt to o er full service.
“Years ago, 60 percent of the restaurants in the state were full service and 40 percent were limited,” says Shams. “When you look at it today, the opposite is true. We think that it is largely because of the cost of operating a full-service restaurant, the labor plus the other costs.”
For people looking to dine out, however, the number and diversity of options have never been greater.
“ e consumer has more restaurants than before to choose from, and that may be a ecting the operator’s bottom line,” says Shams. “ e number of restaurants has grown over the past few years; there are 90,000 restaurants in California.”
Pollack, general manager of Coosemans Los Angeles, notes the steady emergence of restaurants featuring a wider variety of inter- national cuisines, each with their own partic- ular uses of produce.
“ e Los Angeles area has brought in so many chefs from outside of the country and they brought in their own cuisines,” he says. “All of L.A. has changed in terms of its ethnic groups; they’ve gotten more predomi- nant in all areas of the city. It’s Middle East- erners and Hispanics from South and Central America. In the early 1980s, there was a push for farm-to-fork. ere are so many smaller restaurants because sous chefs have gone out and started their own places with 25 or 30 seats, so they could be creative on their own. Some of them go to farmers’ markets every day.” pb
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