Episode 97

$33 Cakeage, Onion Wedding Cakes & a $250,000 Problem

Listen: On spotify

Watch: On youtube

Everything in hospitality has a cost — even cutting the cake.

Tony and Pete unpack the debate around cakeage, from the staff, plates and table time involved to why something that looks like a simple fee can spark so much outrage.

From there, the conversation turns to the bigger pressures facing restaurants: rising wages, merchant fees, ingredients, compliance and what happens when businesses are continually asked to absorb one more cost.

Plus, an onion-scented wedding cake, a collapsing croquembouche, Australian seafood and a few hospitality stories that could only happen behind the scenes.

At the heart of it all: when margins are already tight, where does the next cost go?