#restaurant-economics

#restaurant-economics

The cupcake boom, a twenty-year dessert trend that once captivated the nation, ended with a thunk. However, America's sweet tooth doesn't retire - it just hunts for its next obsession. When all ofSprinkles' stores abruptly closed at the end of 2025, a curtain dropped on an era. Not because the dessert chain, cofounded by pastry chef and entrepreneur Candace Nelson in 2005, was the biggest, but because it was the name-brand symbol of the nation's cupcake years.

It has become clear to me that the restaurant world I've known for decades is radically changing through a combination of factors: people's working patterns, health obsessions, the falling out of love with alcohol and the falling in love with pastries and bread, but, predominantly, the affordability of it all. The numbers are genuinely frightening: in my restaurants, utility costs are up more than 50% since 2019; chocolate prices have doubled; olive oil is up 121%; even spring onions are up 55% spring onions!

Research suggests diners spend more freely when prices are listed without currency symbols - possibly because the visual cue of a dollar sign reminds people they're parting with money.