No, we’re not talking about restaurants in the inner city, we’re talking about trying to get a bite to eat without going broke! Eating out seems to be a riskier undertaking every year. The prices keep getting higher, foods keep getting more processed, contamination is out of control and atmosphere seems like too much to ask for these days. My wife and I love food. Although I certainly show it more than she does, she actually was a chef for a prominent caterer in town for a few years. I have always had an adventurous palate and am also a rather good cook. We adore great food.
We’re not poor, but we do eat out too much. Who doesn’t? It is so much easier to just go up the street and order that bizarre craving you have than it is to go to the grocery store, buy the ingredients you need, dirty your pots and pans and dishes, then clean it all up after you’re finally fat and happy. So we probably eat out at least twice a week. Recently we’ve noticed that were averaging $40 per meal.
A good deal of that bill is because we tend to get a glass of wine with our meal or maybe a cocktail afterward, but no matter what the cause, if we wanted to eat out two to three times a week, it just wasn’t realistic to drop $120 on casual dining. Hell, we could eat at Matthews every Friday instead of going to Mossfire and Mongo’s in a week.
So we decided to try an experiment and see if the two of us can satisfy our taste for the out-of-home culinary experience for $20. Not per person, together. Given this atrocious economy we’re living in, everyone is a little tight for cash. So what local eateries provide menu items that can feed two people for $20?
Before we go any further in this first installment of Ghetto Gourmet, it is important to us that you understand that when we say $20 is our ceiling, we are not counting gratuity. We are striving for a bill that is $20 or below, but we always tip at least 20%. Unfortunately for our server, that still means we’re only a $4 table, but if their service is exemplary, we’ve been known to tip as high as 50%. Don’t be afraid of treating your server well. A good server can make a dining experience and a bad server can ruin a restaurant for you forever. But there is nothing better than a server that knows you tip well and there is no better way to be certain that the money you spend stays inside of our local economy. Because servers spend your tips on alcohol in local bars and drugs from local dealers. I’m kidding, they all spend their money investing stock in locally owned companies.
Throughout the course of this experiment we hope to find some truly delectable cuisine at some of North Florida’s best restaurants, but we feel that it is probably better to start simple. First we had to find out how realistic this project was. So day one: Subway.
Without a plum line to measure against, it is hard to determine what good value really is. By making our first stop Subway, we can parallel what we eat at other restaurants in the future against the true cost of food we buy everyday. Cassie ordered a 6-inch Subway Melt on wheat with some Sun Chips and a tea and I ordered a 12-inch Spicy Italian on Italian herb bread with Doritos and a root beer.
Our total was $15.49.
Eating for $20 is certain to be a challenge in real restaurants when it is barely possible in a fast food restaurant, but at the same time that shows you how much money we waste when we think we are eating cheap. Cassie and I hope to prove in the next six months that you could get much better, healthier food in a real restaurant than you can in a fast food joint that claims to be cheap.
Eat well, eat cheap!
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
