Why a Middletown restaurant is warning customers of rising french fry costs

MIDDLETOWN — Nothing quite pairs better with a juicy burger than some hot french fries, but a local restaurant is being forced to up its prices to keep pace with the skyrocketing cost of potatoes.

In an Instagram post, the owners of Mission, located at 58 Aquidneck Ave., wrote there would be a “significant” rise in the price of its french fries, and hopefully the hike would be temporary.

“We would just love to give our food away, but the reality is, we have bills, and payroll, and mortgage, and kids, and a ton of overhead expenses,” the post reads.

The post includes a graph of the price of potatoes over the past year. When contacted by The Daily News, Anna Burnley, co-owner of Mission, said the graph — created with a restaurant expense computer program called Margin Edge — was added for transparency and because “people are very visual.”

“So customers could see the price fluctuation in a business,” she said.

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Burnley, who does all of the ordering and receives all of the invoices, explained restaurants often try to keep their food costs at 25% to 35%, but Mission was paying roughly 50% on its most recent order of potatoes.

She said the cost of a 90-count case went up $13 over the course of five days — a 27% increase — and the restaurant goes through 50 cases in a week.

“This time last year we were spending .22 cents on a potato,” the post reads. “LAST week we spent .59 cents on a potato. THIS week we are spending .75 cents on a potato.”

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“After all of your overhead, your labor costs and your rent, all of these things, your margins can sometimes be in the negative, which is what you don’t want in the summer in a place like Newport,” Burnley said. “In a seasonal town, you want your numbers in the summer to be in the positive so they can float you for the winter.”

Burnley uses a number of food distributors to place orders, but their prices on potatoes have risen across the board. She added it’s a simple supply-and-demand issue — the crop is down so the price goes up.

And this wasn’t completely unforeseen.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, 2021 droughts in the potato-producing states of Washington and Idaho, which account for 55% of U.S. production, resulted in a crop reduction of 9% and 7%, respectively.

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“Record prices are expected into 2022 as demand continues to bite in a smaller supply,” the federation reported in February.

The price hike on french fries won’t impact Thames Street Kitchen, which is also operated by Burnley and the ownership group.

"With TSK, if we see an increase in one product, we can often offset it with a decrease with another product," she explained. “But when you have a specialty restaurant like Mission, where you’re selling specifically two items and you have an increase like this, it really hurts the business. You can't really fluctuate your menu prices when you only have beef and potatoes."

Turning to frozen french fries, which would be cheaper, will not be considered, Burnley said.

“Honestly, it would take a piece of my soul away if we were forced into that position,” she said. “Working in a restaurant, we have to be able to know the product we’re putting out has been something that’s been thought over. We won’t ever go that route.”

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As nervous as Burnley was to make the post on Instagram, the feedback was both positive and empathetic to the situation.

“I’d pay $50 to have an order of your fries here in California right now,” one commenter wrote. “Love you guys and all your integrity.”

“Best fries in the world, worth every cent!” wrote another.

Burnley said there was a “heavy spike” in the cost of beef not along ago, but “we were able to ride that wave.” She hopes the same can happen with potatoes.

“The last thing I want people to think is we’re price-gouging them,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Mission, Middletown, raises french fries price as potato prices soar