Andrew Friedman
speaker
369 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Feb 2026
last heard 2 May
Andrew Friedman’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The sort of albatross that the current generation of restaurateurs has been saddled with, they would never have had a tipping system in place.
You know, that's a very unique thing to this country.
If you go to most countries in Europe, the price is the price.
I can't quote an exact statistic, but having talked to a couple of dozen restaurateurs about this,
The rate of increase of menu pricing over about the last two decades in the United States restaurant community tracks well behind the rate of inflation in this country.
Restaurateurs live in fear of causing sticker shock among their guests.
And this is an issue that has actually, many restaurants had to after COVID because of supply chain issues and whatnot, had to raise their prices somewhat.
But most restaurateurs I know feel like their menu
is actually priced about 30%, 35% lower than it should be.
And the few that I know who kind of ripped the Band-Aid off after the COVID lockdown, that's about the percentage that they raised their prices in an effort to get things back in line after they had some time to reflect and play around with their business models.
So they track well behind inflation.
That's the easiest way to explain it.
I would agree with you that it alienates people.
I would tell you that the sort of albatross that the current generation of restaurateurs has been saddled with is something if they
could have designed the American restaurant system.
They would never have had a tipping system in place.
You know, that's a very unique thing to this country.
You know, as a lot of listeners probably know, if you go to most countries in Europe, the price is the price.
And, you know, waiting tables is not seen the way it was for so long in this country, which was kind of like, you know, something that out-of-work actors did, you know, so they could have flexibility to go to their auditions, you know, or something like that.
It's treated as a profession on par with the way people think about chefs.
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