Eating It : Restaurants in O.C. Bite the Bullet on Higher Food Costs

At Rex il Ristorante in Downtown Los Angeles, it’s the fennel at $20 a case. At Real Food Daily in Santa Monica, it’s the organically grown cauliflower at $60 a case. The Hobbit in Orange was horrified when red leaf lettuce hit $26 a case. For Xiomara in Pasadena, it’s the $40-a-case artichokes.

Area restaurateurs are swallowing hard-to-digest produce prices that, driven to new heights last month by lousy California weather, were a key factor in Friday’s greater-than-expected jump in the nationwide consumer price index for April. But they’ll lose money, restaurant owners say, rather than drop specialties or raise the prices for their valued customers.

“Prices are up now, for iceberg and Romaine, along with onions and tomatoes,” said Laverna Gilbert, manager of Shelly’s Restaurant in Santa Ana. “Those are the prices that have us in shock.” But Shelly’s, like other restaurants, can’t afford to irritate customers by changing menu prices when prices spike up, or by cutting back on serving sizes.

“It’s shocking,” said Ann Gentry, owner of Real Food Daily, a vegetarian eatery. “We are hoping it will all balance back down. . . . We certainly don’t like what has happened to the bottom line, but you eat it.”

Or you shift to less costly items, said Mike Philippi, chef and owner of The Hobbit. “When the floods came and the artichoke season went to hell in a handbasket, we started featuring mushrooms. Or you use the spring mix greens that are hothouse grown so they are less vulnerable to weather.”

Philippi said he also made good use of strawberries, which were so plentiful despite the heavy rains earlier this year that the price actually when down. “We were paying $10 a flat at one point,” he said. “They are usually $16” for a flat of a dozen pint baskets.

Lettuce prices, which took a 113% jump in April’s consumer price index, have begun dropping, but they still have Southern California produce buyers doing double takes. Gentry said she paid $37 this week for a case of romaine lettuce, which normally runs $12 to $16 per case of 24 heads.

At chic Citrus in the Melrose district, chef Alain Giraud said that despite the high prices, he can’t do without baby romaine lettuce, the heart of Citrus’ Caesar salad. On Friday, Giraud paid $44.50 for a case of 48 tiny heads--nearly double the usual cost.

“Today we pay the price of yesterday’s bad weather,” he said. “But today’s lunch is busy, and I see the customers are in a good mood for the weekend--I want them to forget about the bad weather. If I don’t make money on salad for two to three months, it’s no big deal.”

However, at the produce-intensive Soup Exchange chain of nearly 20 salad-bar type restaurants, lettuce is a big deal. A typical Soup Exchange uses more than 1,000 heads of iceberg lettuce a week.

Menu offerings and prices are fixed, “but we try to make adjustments,” said Lynn Ross, purchasing manager for the San Diego-based chain. Red leaf lettuce has been showing up in the salad bars more frequently lately because it has been cheaper than romaine and iceberg, and “it’s fluffier and fills the plate better,” she said.

“It’s been tough,” Ross said. “We try to hope that people eat the other stuff,” such as soup, ribs and chicken.

At Xiomara, the fresh greens salad that is $5.50 on the menu may cost owner Xiomara Ardolina as much as $10 these days. But she will also leave the price alone. Same for chef Patrick Healy’s artichoke soup, even though the price of a case of 24 artichokes has gone from $16 to $40.

Chef Odette Fada wouldn’t do without fennel at the sumptuous Rex. The aromatic herb now costs $20 for a case of about 18 pieces, up from $12. “She gets the best, and we pay the prices,” said manager Maureen Murphy. “It’s certainly not passed on to our clients.”

Famed chef and restaurateur Wolgang Puck pays little heed to price fluctuations, said Margaret Walsh, manager of Puck’s Granita restaurant in Malibu. “Wolf always pays whatever it takes to get good ingredients,” she said.

For once, it’s almost the same for Hans Eberhard, food director at Skid Row’s Union Rescue Mission. Although the mission usually serves little fresh produce, there are times when it suits the occasion. And this Sunday, for its annual Mother’s Day brunch and fashion show, the mission wants a healthy spread for an expected 500 women and children guests.

“We want to have a fancy buffet and good-looking food,” Eberhard said. “It costs a little bit more, but it’s not a big deal.”

*

Times staff writers Greg Johnson and John O’Dell in Orange County contributed to this story.

* FOOD’S TO BLAME

Consumer prices rose a higher-than-expected 0.4%. D2

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Expensive Salad Days

Retail fruit and vegetable prices jumped nationwide in December and April. Winter storm damage caused the price of lettuce to increase more than 100% in April. Percentage change from previous month’s prices of three components of the consumer price index:

FRUITS, VEGETABLES

April 1995: 5.2%

LETTUCE

April 1995: 113.1%

TOMATOES

April 1995: 15.6%

Note: Figures are based on U.S. averages for urban consumers.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Researched by DAVID NEIMAN / Los Angeles Times