Eating out more expensive? See what Columbus restaurant menus saw a price jump

From local budget-friendly establishments to popular fine-dining steakhouses, almost every restaurant bill has gone up in the last few years.

From grocery prices and egg prices in particular to gas prices, everything costs more, but how does that impact Columbus restaurants?

Joe Goodman, chair of the department of marketing and logistics at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business, said between the costs of food and labor, restaurants are feeling the same squeeze as customers.

"Restaurants are already operating on pretty tight margins," said Goodman. "When you see pretty huge increases on food in grocery stores, it's the same thing for restaurants."

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Why are menu prices going up?

Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace, located Downtown, is one restaurant that has had to increase prices.

While visually Dirty Frank's prices appear to have not gone up much, some menu items — such as the Chicago dog, which went from $4.25 to $4.95, and the deluxe "tot-chos," which went from $5.95 to $6.95 — went up 16% and 17%, respectively.

Co-owner Miriam Ailabouni said $6 or $7 for the Chicago dog would accurately reflect pricing fluctuations, but there is a ceiling on hot dogs.

"We recognize that we opened a concept that was meant to be a budget-friendly restaurant that is accessible to everyone," said Ailabouni. "And any time any kind of price increases happen, we have to keep that in mind."

Goodman said restaurant price increases are dependent on, among other things, the types of customers, what's on the menu and restaurant price points.

A fine dining restaurant is not buying in bulk like a fast food or budget-friendly restaurant is, and hiring is much more labor intensive. And some restaurants have more "pricing power" than others, or having the ability to raise prices and still keep their customers.

Some restaurants can shift their menu to accommodate the increase in food costs — chicken and eggs might show up less on menus, for instance — but it's harder for others.

"Different restaurants have different buying power and different suppliers," he said. For instance, a hamburger will be priced differently if it is local, frozen or organic. "It used to be a little bit simpler," he said.

Price of eggs, meat, seafood have gone up

In December the price of chicken went up 10.9%, while fish and seafood went up 5% and eggs went up 59.9% from December 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The jump in egg prices may be the main reason Franklinton's Tommy's Diner's breakfast menu prices have gone up. The diner's big breakfast, consisting of three pancakes or two slices of French toast, two eggs and bacon, sausage or ham, with home fries and toast, went from $12.75 to $18.25, a 43% increase. The chopped steak and eggs, including an 8-ounce chopped sirloin with two eggs, home fries and toast, went from $10.25 to $14.00, or 37%.

However, the price of beef and veal has decreased by 3.1% from December 2021, which isn't reflected in the price increases of steakhouses like Mitchell's Ocean Club in Easton or Mitchell's Steakhouse Downtown.

But beef production has seen delays in the last few years as feed costs increase and the ongoing drought across some parts of the country forces selloffs of cow herds. All cattle and calves in the country were down 3% from January 2023 to the same time last year, according to the USDA's semi-annual cattle inventory report, tightening the national beef supply.

The USDA also reports that 2023 pork production may increase 1.8% over production last year, while poultry and egg price forecasts were lowered in 2023.

How Columbus restaurants stack up

Of the nine restaurant menus examined from 2020 and 2021 to current menu prices, all but one had menu prices go up, with percentage increases in the single and double-digits. The Dispatch compared prices by looking at current and cached menus available online.

Price comparisons for each restaurant include four items, with at least one of the lowest-priced items and one of the higher-priced items on each menu.

Little Palace, located Downtown, was the outlier, as it appears the restaurant may not have changed its menu prices since November 2020.

Mitchell's Ocean Club visually appears to have the biggest jumps in prices, with the price of lamb, one of the restaurant's highest-priced items, going from $53 in 2021 to $66 currently, a 25% increase.

Mitchell's Steakhouse, no longer owned by Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, saw similar jumps in higher-priced items like its 16-ounce prime ribeye, which went from $51 to $65, a 27% increase.

But both menu price increases typically stayed under 30%, some solace when looking at some of the price increases at mid-priced restaurants like Northstar and BrewDog.

At Northstar, the menu items chosen all saw an increase of 25% to 30%. The highest increase highlighted was Northstar's Buddha bowl, which went from $13 to $16.90. Northstar's most current menu does include items priced in the high single digits, like salads and chili, but they were not on its menu in April 2020.

At BrewDog, a side of fries that was $4 in 2020 is now $5.95, up 49%, and a Beyond Meat burger, which was $15 in 2020, is now $19.95. However, the brewery's "share" size of chicken wings went up just 5 percent, from $19 to $19.95.

Meanwhile, some menu price increases at The Top Steak House, in Eastmoor, stayed relatively low. The Grilled chicken breast entree, $24.95, saw no increase, whereas one of the restaurant's more expensive items, the large cut prime rib of beef, went from $40.95 in 2021 to $45.95 now, a 12% increase.

tmoorman@dispatch.com

@taijuannichole

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: See how much dining out has gone up at nine Columbus restaurants