Even in a slow economy, dinner and drinks might end up costing you more than you thought.
A national survey by Intellaprice found that dinner, bar drinks and desserts have jumped up in price.
Dinner entrees are up 2%, side dishes jumped 8% and desserts inched up 7%. Bar drinks went up 2% nationally. But if you're the type to eat an appetizer as your meal, you might be saving cash. Appetizers went down 2% and add-on items (cheese, bacon, etc) dropped 4%.
Corky Campisi, the owner of Campisi's in Dallas said he's able to keep his menu prices steady, but he's had to add some non-Italian items to his menu to attract customers.
"A pork chop with spinach and a vegetable plate, fish, chicken nuggets for kids." Campisi's added.
The restaurant owner also said he's offering weekday specials to get bodies through the door.
"I do spaghetti and salad on Tuesday. Half price. And if I don't do the business on Tuesday night giving it away half price, I won't do it Wednesday and Thursday. You do your business on the weekends, but I try to catch some days during the week." Campisi said.
Campisi said it's working, said he still sees his "regulars", just not on their regular night.
"I see people all the time and I say, I haven't seen you at the restaurant, and they'll say, we come on Tuesday night for the special, and I say, OK, at least they're coming!" he added.
