Slump du Jour

To judge by the prices that they charge, the owners of many of Manhattan's Lucullan restaurants live by bread alone. But the slump in the stock market and the squeeze in corporate profits have hit them where it hurts most --right in the cash registers. Empty tables and anxiously idle waiters bear testimony to the deflation of the expense account and the tourist trade.

"Business stinks," says Jack Nussbaum, proprietor of Voisin. "It's down by an average 30% to 50%. People just aren't coming in." Business is also off at Quo Vadis, where dinner for two with wine can easily cost $50. But Co-Owner Bruno Caravaggi remains sanguine. "It can't last," he says. "There will always be people who seek our kind of service and attention." Attorney Victor Jacobs, who represents La Caravelle, La Cote Basque, Le Manoir and other luxury establishments, calculates that dollar volume has slipped 15% to 20% from last year's levels. This, taken together with rising costs for labor and provisions, leads Jacobs to a bleak conclusion: "I think it might be the end of the deluxe restaurant era."

The situation varies according to the price category of a restaurant, reports Richard Blumenthal, an executive of the big Restaurant Associates chain. In its deluxe restaurants (The Four Seasons, Tower Suite, etc.), the decline in social dining has been matched by an increase in the trade of worried businessmen who entertain prospective clients in an effort to make a sale. The chain's moderately priced restaurants, like Mamma Leone's and La Fonda del Sol, have experienced a decline in the numbers of pre-theater diners because of a downturn in family entertaining. Lower-priced restaurants, like Zum Zum and Riker's, find business stronger than ever--because everyone is trying to save money.

Overall, the most obvious slackening has been at dinnertime. The lunch trade is holding steady in many of the better restaurants, but even the midday period is grim in the funereal precincts of Wall Street. At Eberlin's, a financial-district favorite, volume is off 10% to 15%. For major hotels, the banquet and convention business offers slimmer pickings because companies are sending fewer people on combined business-pleasure jaunts.

Though business has dwindled, some restaurateurs have jacked up prices about 10% in the past year. There is, however, some solace for the diner. Instead of offering the usual cold shoulder, some waiters and managers are learning again to make an effort to be polite.

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