February 20, 2006
Pot of gold? | New Portland restaurants bet that diners will pay upwards of $10 for the comforts of mac and cheese
By Michaela Cavallaro
In the months after Sept. 11, 2001, one of the apparent truisms intoned by news anchors was that Americans were retreating to the embrace of comfort food ˆ hearty, carb-heavy dishes like meatloaf and macaroni and cheese that purportedly hearken back to a simpler time. Now, nearly five years later, that trend seems well established. You practically can't walk a block in downtown Portland without stumbling across a restaurant with comfort food entrées on the menu. Even Five Fifty-Five, an upscale bistro on Congress Street, does its own take on the cheesy pasta dish with handmade pasta and truffles.
A more typical approach is that of The Front Room, which opened on Munjoy Hill in December. Chef-owner Harding Smith, a veteran of Portland restaurants Back Bay Grill and Mim's, and his co-owner, Sarah DeLisio-Downs, set out to create a cozy neighborhood restaurant that would attract repeat customers. Doing so, he says, meant coming up with a varied menu in a range of prices that would appeal to what he describes as the "big population of 25- to 45-year-olds with plenty of disposable income" who live in the area.
Anchoring the low end of the menu is a $9 mac and cheese, which on a recent night came with a side of sautéed green beans and carrots. (On the high end is a $17 salmon entrée; most items fall in the $12-$13 range.) The cheese was orange and the pasta definitely not hand-made ˆ and, at $9, the dish costs at least four times more than the boxed stuff you made in college or for your toddler.
But don't make the mistake of thinking that Smith is pulling in cash hand over fist on his mac and cheese or his $12 meatloaf. Macaroni and cheese, for example, "is inexpensive for us to produce, but because we charge only $9, the profit is about the same as on everything else we do," which is about eight percent of the menu price, he says. "With this kind of restaurant, we know the margins are going to be fairly low, so one of the things we have to survive on is doing volume."
That's par for the course for restaurants jumping on the comfort-food bandwagon, particularly when it comes to mac and cheese, according to Patricia Dailey, editor in chief of Restaurants & Institutions, a Chicago-based trade magazine. "Cheese is not cheap," she points out. "In order for it to succeed in an upscale environment, it can't just be elbow macaroni with processed cheese food. It has to be high quality ingredients that people will be attracted to."
Pleasing "the fourth person"
Lisa Vaccaro is general manager of Caiola's, which opened in the West End late last fall. She bristles at the notion that the restaurant focuses on comfort food; she and partner Abby Harmon, previously the longtime chef at Portland seafood restaurant Street & Co., put together a menu centered on what Vaccaro describes as "European country cuisine, with foods from France, Spain and Italy along with American classics."
Still, because of the restaurant's location on Pine Street, in the heart of a residential neighborhood, the partners thought it was important to include a couple of cheaper, more accessible dishes. So along with the paella, Caiola's serves a burger as well as a fancy take on mac and cheese. Caiola's version, which sells for $15.95, is based on Vaccaro's grandmother's recipe, and is more of an alfredo than a true macaroni and cheese; in addition to containing a mixture of local, organic cheeses (cheddar, smoked gouda and fresh parmiggiano), the dish comes with a side of roasted tomatoes and an arugula salad with local, organic greens.
Like Smith at The Front Room, Vaccaro says the dish doesn't produce more profit than other entrees. Instead, she says, it's a way to balance the menu. "It's for the fourth person," she says. "When four people go out to dinner, there's always that one person that can't find anything on the menu."
Caiola's approach is a smart one, according to Dailey. "If your mac and cheese has artisanal cheese and some white truffles and some panko bread crumbs, people still lo ve it," she says. "They love seeing that there's something they intuitively know and understand, but they also love that they're getting something that reflects their sense that they're hip and cool."
Moses Sabina hopes Dailey is right. He recently bought the Friendship Café, a stalwart breakfast and lunch spot on Congress Street in the West End, and plans to relaunch it with a comfort food theme as Hot Suppa! this month. Sabina spent months developing a concept and business plan for his restaurant, and says it became obvious that well-priced comfort food was the way to go. "Especially in Portland, we don't have enough American fare done really well and at an affordable price," he says.
At the top of Sabina's list for new lunch entrées? You guessed it: macaroni and cheese and meatloaf.
With the proliferation of restaurants like The Front Room, Caiola's and Hot Suppa! in the last few months, observers could be forgiven for wondering if Portland is facing a mac-and-cheese glut. The restaurateurs, however, are unconcerned about the potential competition. "It is all over menus these days," Smith says of the dish. "But it sells tremendously. The simple fact is that people don't cook that much anymore."
A more typical approach is that of The Front Room, which opened on Munjoy Hill in December. Chef-owner Harding Smith, a veteran of Portland restaurants Back Bay Grill and Mim's, and his co-owner, Sarah DeLisio-Downs, set out to create a cozy neighborhood restaurant that would attract repeat customers. Doing so, he says, meant coming up with a varied menu in a range of prices that would appeal to what he describes as the "big population of 25- to 45-year-olds with plenty of disposable income" who live in the area.
Anchoring the low end of the menu is a $9 mac and cheese, which on a recent night came with a side of sautéed green beans and carrots. (On the high end is a $17 salmon entrée; most items fall in the $12-$13 range.) The cheese was orange and the pasta definitely not hand-made ˆ and, at $9, the dish costs at least four times more than the boxed stuff you made in college or for your toddler.
But don't make the mistake of thinking that Smith is pulling in cash hand over fist on his mac and cheese or his $12 meatloaf. Macaroni and cheese, for example, "is inexpensive for us to produce, but because we charge only $9, the profit is about the same as on everything else we do," which is about eight percent of the menu price, he says. "With this kind of restaurant, we know the margins are going to be fairly low, so one of the things we have to survive on is doing volume."
That's par for the course for restaurants jumping on the comfort-food bandwagon, particularly when it comes to mac and cheese, according to Patricia Dailey, editor in chief of Restaurants & Institutions, a Chicago-based trade magazine. "Cheese is not cheap," she points out. "In order for it to succeed in an upscale environment, it can't just be elbow macaroni with processed cheese food. It has to be high quality ingredients that people will be attracted to."
Pleasing "the fourth person"
Lisa Vaccaro is general manager of Caiola's, which opened in the West End late last fall. She bristles at the notion that the restaurant focuses on comfort food; she and partner Abby Harmon, previously the longtime chef at Portland seafood restaurant Street & Co., put together a menu centered on what Vaccaro describes as "European country cuisine, with foods from France, Spain and Italy along with American classics."
Still, because of the restaurant's location on Pine Street, in the heart of a residential neighborhood, the partners thought it was important to include a couple of cheaper, more accessible dishes. So along with the paella, Caiola's serves a burger as well as a fancy take on mac and cheese. Caiola's version, which sells for $15.95, is based on Vaccaro's grandmother's recipe, and is more of an alfredo than a true macaroni and cheese; in addition to containing a mixture of local, organic cheeses (cheddar, smoked gouda and fresh parmiggiano), the dish comes with a side of roasted tomatoes and an arugula salad with local, organic greens.
Like Smith at The Front Room, Vaccaro says the dish doesn't produce more profit than other entrees. Instead, she says, it's a way to balance the menu. "It's for the fourth person," she says. "When four people go out to dinner, there's always that one person that can't find anything on the menu."
Caiola's approach is a smart one, according to Dailey. "If your mac and cheese has artisanal cheese and some white truffles and some panko bread crumbs, people still lo ve it," she says. "They love seeing that there's something they intuitively know and understand, but they also love that they're getting something that reflects their sense that they're hip and cool."
Moses Sabina hopes Dailey is right. He recently bought the Friendship Café, a stalwart breakfast and lunch spot on Congress Street in the West End, and plans to relaunch it with a comfort food theme as Hot Suppa! this month. Sabina spent months developing a concept and business plan for his restaurant, and says it became obvious that well-priced comfort food was the way to go. "Especially in Portland, we don't have enough American fare done really well and at an affordable price," he says.
At the top of Sabina's list for new lunch entrées? You guessed it: macaroni and cheese and meatloaf.
With the proliferation of restaurants like The Front Room, Caiola's and Hot Suppa! in the last few months, observers could be forgiven for wondering if Portland is facing a mac-and-cheese glut. The restaurateurs, however, are unconcerned about the potential competition. "It is all over menus these days," Smith says of the dish. "But it sells tremendously. The simple fact is that people don't cook that much anymore."
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