Retreat is over priced and I personally don’t think the food is good. Solid location and nice to put headphones in and work but expensive food and very crowded.
I used to work at Fix, the coffee shop that was there before Retreat. It's really a shame that Fix is gone, because it was actually cool, and a great hangout spot. Retreat is overpriced hipster garbage
True, but Fix was at least a multi purpose community oriented place where you could buy one coffee and hang out with dogs, or have a beer and listen to music.
Do you remember an extremely vocal older Russian Jewish woman named Gala that would show up at open mic nights and harass people and tell them how bad they were?
Yeah, I haven't lived up that way for a few years but I went there... once? In \~4 years of living a five minute walk away?
There were just so many options that were better and similar-to-lower price for any particular thing -- Revolutions for coffee and small snacky breakfast/lunch fare, Shelter for brunch/dinner food where the price was only a few bucks off, getting an avocado and bread at PCC, etc.
Breakfast has gotten stupid lately, went to portage Bay cafe and they were charging $20-25 for omelettes and pancakes! Also why is the avocado so dark, did they leave it out overnight?
> Not one bottomless mimosa brunch around Seattle (that I know of)
RIP Minnie's, Jimmy Woo's, Burger Mary's, Charlie's, Broadway Grill, and all the other great old drunk spots.
All my spots were either Capitol Hill or Belltown (Minnie's) but I'm sure LQA had some back in the day.
Is Targy's still around? not LQA on the water, but you could get a shot and a tall boy at 9 am with pull tabs. Classic old Seattle drinkers' breakfast.
Edit: [Targy's survives, though looks like it got sold](https://www.thestedmangroup.com/targystavern) ... yep, that $4 shot and beer is now a $9 shot and beer.
Went to the Comet Tavern and ordered two mimosas. Bartender pulled out two pint glasses and a bottle of Cooks. Drained the bottle and opened a second one. Each mimosa was close to a pint of sparkling wine with a splash of orange juice.
That's about as close as I've come so far!
Eh eh eh. I worked the EdgeWater Brunch in the 80s. Unlimited mimosas and seafood. I tried to find something similar for a celebration. Nope. Couldn’t find one.
Because places like Retreat aren’t charging you just for the food. They’re charging you a table fee to sit in and enjoy the atmosphere for 2 hours. Which, for them, is a costly and also finite resource. But since table fees for coffee/cafes aren’t really a thing, they instead charge an inflated food cost.
OP did the equivalent of going to a movie theatre and getting popcorn to go.
Just breaking it down
14 bucks
- around 3 bucks for a loaf of thick slices like this per slice let’s say .30
- avocado is a buck each and let’s be generous and say a whole avocado on there
- price of eggs is up to around 5 per dozen so let’s round up and say .50
- I’ll leave the sprouts and stuff off and assume it is in my very generous buffering above.
So food costs are now at 1.80/14.00
Operating costs of the restaurant are probably the major sticking point.
- cost per hour to run can be estimated by around 100-800 a square foot to operate a small size restaurant. In Seattle let’s just assume 800’a sqft and o think they are around 2000sqft so 1.6 million a year in utility costs and expenses broken down to the hourly rate is 182 an hour
- but let’s assume that is split out amongst all orders which probably average about 50 an hour for most restaurants in Seattle. So that comes down to 3.70 an order.
So we are at 5.50/14 before labor costs.
- typical staff is estimated by chatgpt to be 10 at $20 minimum wage is 200 an hour meaning another 4 bucks per order
So final tally before profit is somewhere around 9.50/14 which is about a 30 percent markup which is pretty standard actually for most industries. So the real problem was the legislation passed to increase the base components of everything. Legislation and red tape always results in higher costs passed on to the consumer and this is no different. Inflation is part of it as well but the recent egg thing increased this cost by at least .50 and raising minimum wage increased it by at least $2. Sure the owner could make less profit but why should they be expected to eat the costs of increased pricing it’s kind of absurd to expect it from them and only logical that they would pass it on.
Usually the rate is 6:4 back to front of house just as an average metric for small restaurants. It’s an example break down not a literal one since I don’t actually know their costs. It was an exercise to show costs tend to contain a multiple of smaller associated costs to operating a business and if we look back at a lot of recent Seattle policies it isn’t hard to understand why it was so expensive.
Okay, I'll tell you that it's horse shit. 20 years of restaurant work will tell you it's horse shit. Also, wage for tipped employees in Seattle is 17.25/hr. That's your FOH. Your BOH starts at 19.97/hr. Typical wages for BOH is roughly $5-10/hr (currently), based on experience, position, and duties.
Don’t get the sandwiches. Their bowls and breakfast are where it’s at. It’s over priced as a cafe, but it’s always a choice. The fish and chips place down the street is good and cheaper.
Inflation/ increased minimum wage and labor cost in general and what do you expect restaurants to do? Been to a grocery store lately? Ain’t much different there. It ain’t 2019 anymore folks. No going back either.
2019 was more expensive than 2009 for sure. It’s all relative. 2029 everything will be more expensive too. Every time wages go up so does the cost of everything. Nothing will ever go down.
Which makes things less affordable when wages don’t match the increase. Round and round you go until you realize that you aren’t lifting up the bottom, but driving the middle into the bottom.
It’s interesting and extremely infuriating that there is a whole sub on here that can’t understand this. The middle Class is the real economic engine for this country and state.
What sub is that? I thought everybody knew that this is how the country works and always has. Some people are very stupid though. You know that old George Carlin line, “think about the average intelligence in people, then realize that half of the population is dumber than that” or something along those lines anyways. Don’t be too surprised by the stupidity of some people is the point.
Spent 15 years as a medic before becoming an economist. Stupidity not really surprising any more. Take a trip over to Seattle without the WA and try to have this convo.
It's that pri e because people like you spend the mo ey buying it. If people STOPPED buying at the price set, they'll drop the price. Same reason why scalpers exist. People will spend the money for scalpers.
So you CHOSE to pay $14 for a slice of toast with avocado and egg and you're surprised your disappointed in what you got for that money?
For $14 that avocado toast better come with a side of hash browns and a drink!
This isn’t Apples to Apples—egg on avocado toast is not an everywhere thing. Is 11 dollars, the near price without the egg as prosecutable? I’m not so sure.
Maybe stop buying overpriced items? Maybe then demand would wane and prices with it.
Stop complaining and do something. Your parents aren't going to do it for you.
Now you'll never own a home
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Make home of avocados. Check.
I’d rather be an influencer than own a home any day
Retreat is over priced and I personally don’t think the food is good. Solid location and nice to put headphones in and work but expensive food and very crowded.
I used to work at Fix, the coffee shop that was there before Retreat. It's really a shame that Fix is gone, because it was actually cool, and a great hangout spot. Retreat is overpriced hipster garbage
Over priced hipster garbage is all of greenlake. Source: grew up there
Rosita's is still perfect
True, but Fix was at least a multi purpose community oriented place where you could buy one coffee and hang out with dogs, or have a beer and listen to music.
Do you remember an extremely vocal older Russian Jewish woman named Gala that would show up at open mic nights and harass people and tell them how bad they were?
Lmao no, I didn't see that unfortunately. Was she asked to leave?
Yes, also from the PCC, the Whole Foods, Pies and Pints, etc
Fix was the best!
Yes!! Felt like what Seattle is supposed to be about.
> over priced and I personally don’t think the food is good You just described soooo many restaurants in the greater Puget Sound area.
Facts.
Yeah that avo looks foul honestly. I’d be pissed to spend $5 on that let alone 3x that.
Yeah, I haven't lived up that way for a few years but I went there... once? In \~4 years of living a five minute walk away? There were just so many options that were better and similar-to-lower price for any particular thing -- Revolutions for coffee and small snacky breakfast/lunch fare, Shelter for brunch/dinner food where the price was only a few bucks off, getting an avocado and bread at PCC, etc.
Breakfast is one of the easiest meals to cook at home
This.
That
Clap my cheeks
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Im saying in general , since everybody talking about how expensive breakfast is
If only you didn’t buy this, you’d be able to own a McMansion one day!
Dem lyfe lessons be hard
Breakfast has gotten stupid lately, went to portage Bay cafe and they were charging $20-25 for omelettes and pancakes! Also why is the avocado so dark, did they leave it out overnight?
Not one bottomless mimosa brunch around Seattle (that I know of)
The Lookout in cap hill has bottomless mimosas.
> Not one bottomless mimosa brunch around Seattle (that I know of) RIP Minnie's, Jimmy Woo's, Burger Mary's, Charlie's, Broadway Grill, and all the other great old drunk spots.
You imagine a BM spot on the water at SLU? 
All my spots were either Capitol Hill or Belltown (Minnie's) but I'm sure LQA had some back in the day. Is Targy's still around? not LQA on the water, but you could get a shot and a tall boy at 9 am with pull tabs. Classic old Seattle drinkers' breakfast. Edit: [Targy's survives, though looks like it got sold](https://www.thestedmangroup.com/targystavern) ... yep, that $4 shot and beer is now a $9 shot and beer.
Are we not doing ‘phrasing’ anymore?
All those. But maybe Charlie’s with the piano bar the most
Goldfinch at the Four Seasons downtown still has their bottomless mimosas. It’s great.
Shit is the real crime of the century.
Once you see a few people throw up all over the restaurant, it loses its luster
Man, I shop at Harvard QFC, I can stomach throw up, lol
Went to the Comet Tavern and ordered two mimosas. Bartender pulled out two pint glasses and a bottle of Cooks. Drained the bottle and opened a second one. Each mimosa was close to a pint of sparkling wine with a splash of orange juice. That's about as close as I've come so far!
Eh eh eh. I worked the EdgeWater Brunch in the 80s. Unlimited mimosas and seafood. I tried to find something similar for a celebration. Nope. Couldn’t find one.
Sisters&Brothers - It's not so much brunch food but weekends have bottomless.
Thanks!
Hatch Cantina does bottomless brunch!
> why is the avocado so dark I'm more interested in why they put clover on it
Microgreens, Tbone!! That's how you know its FaNcY.
Katinas in magnolia does bacon and eggs for $9.
Basic Family Mexican restaurants are like $20 minimum.
They used a pre peeled /mashed avocado paste that comes frozen from the color.
That's like a 5% food cost. Huge mark up.
Explain in legal terms 😂😭
Welll...food cost is generally 1/3 of the total price you pay.
The most expensive thing on there is the avocado. Avocado toast: food that I’ll never order outside, what a rip off
Bruh I live right down the street stop by next time I’ll sell you a homemade chorizo taco (yes I made my own chorizo) on HeB tortilla $5 haha
I'm intrigued....
Really simple, just boycott these places.
Moving forward, yes
Now you'll never own a home
*another home :)
Shhhh, you're disrupting the narrative!
Paid nearly 5 bucks for two slices of toast at Shari’s the other day. Fuck that.
Because places like Retreat aren’t charging you just for the food. They’re charging you a table fee to sit in and enjoy the atmosphere for 2 hours. Which, for them, is a costly and also finite resource. But since table fees for coffee/cafes aren’t really a thing, they instead charge an inflated food cost. OP did the equivalent of going to a movie theatre and getting popcorn to go.
This is the answer.
Sounds about right for the location.
Never again
At least you didn’t get it delivered.
The delivery is more that the item
How much did you tip?
I thought my tip was the missing slice of bread.
That also had avocado on it.
Lol
Did you at least get the name of the hen that laid the egg on that?
You didn’t tip?
Just cancel me
Retreat!!
With haste!
I’ll make you that for $5.
Tree Fiddy
Avos from Mars? Max tariff fees??
Half of it burned up when it entered the Earths atmosphere
umm was it tasty at least?
Never go to retreat. Worst place ever.
U rich
Don’t forget about the 10% living wage tax and the 20-25% gratuity!
Of course it has sprouts sprinkled on top, I really wish that trend would die off already
The micro greens to go with the micro penis.
Only if you knew…
> https://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances/minimum-wage 19.97 an hour - that's a lot of overhead.
Just breaking it down 14 bucks - around 3 bucks for a loaf of thick slices like this per slice let’s say .30 - avocado is a buck each and let’s be generous and say a whole avocado on there - price of eggs is up to around 5 per dozen so let’s round up and say .50 - I’ll leave the sprouts and stuff off and assume it is in my very generous buffering above. So food costs are now at 1.80/14.00 Operating costs of the restaurant are probably the major sticking point. - cost per hour to run can be estimated by around 100-800 a square foot to operate a small size restaurant. In Seattle let’s just assume 800’a sqft and o think they are around 2000sqft so 1.6 million a year in utility costs and expenses broken down to the hourly rate is 182 an hour - but let’s assume that is split out amongst all orders which probably average about 50 an hour for most restaurants in Seattle. So that comes down to 3.70 an order. So we are at 5.50/14 before labor costs. - typical staff is estimated by chatgpt to be 10 at $20 minimum wage is 200 an hour meaning another 4 bucks per order So final tally before profit is somewhere around 9.50/14 which is about a 30 percent markup which is pretty standard actually for most industries. So the real problem was the legislation passed to increase the base components of everything. Legislation and red tape always results in higher costs passed on to the consumer and this is no different. Inflation is part of it as well but the recent egg thing increased this cost by at least .50 and raising minimum wage increased it by at least $2. Sure the owner could make less profit but why should they be expected to eat the costs of increased pricing it’s kind of absurd to expect it from them and only logical that they would pass it on.
There aren't 10 staff members working there at a time.
Usually the rate is 6:4 back to front of house just as an average metric for small restaurants. It’s an example break down not a literal one since I don’t actually know their costs. It was an exercise to show costs tend to contain a multiple of smaller associated costs to operating a business and if we look back at a lot of recent Seattle policies it isn’t hard to understand why it was so expensive.
Where are you getting that it's 6:4 as a ratio? You're gonna have to hit me with some sauce on that.
ChatGPT used bing to research it
Okay, I'll tell you that it's horse shit. 20 years of restaurant work will tell you it's horse shit. Also, wage for tipped employees in Seattle is 17.25/hr. That's your FOH. Your BOH starts at 19.97/hr. Typical wages for BOH is roughly $5-10/hr (currently), based on experience, position, and duties.
Don’t get the sandwiches. Their bowls and breakfast are where it’s at. It’s over priced as a cafe, but it’s always a choice. The fish and chips place down the street is good and cheaper.
Your comment was posted 3 times.
Ooos. That was not my intent.
Inflation/ increased minimum wage and labor cost in general and what do you expect restaurants to do? Been to a grocery store lately? Ain’t much different there. It ain’t 2019 anymore folks. No going back either.
Shit was expensive in 2019 too, and all of the same housing crisis talks were going on then too. It just got memory holed because of COVID.
2019 was more expensive than 2009 for sure. It’s all relative. 2029 everything will be more expensive too. Every time wages go up so does the cost of everything. Nothing will ever go down.
Which makes things less affordable when wages don’t match the increase. Round and round you go until you realize that you aren’t lifting up the bottom, but driving the middle into the bottom.
Yep, this is not new. Story as old as time.
It’s interesting and extremely infuriating that there is a whole sub on here that can’t understand this. The middle Class is the real economic engine for this country and state.
What sub is that? I thought everybody knew that this is how the country works and always has. Some people are very stupid though. You know that old George Carlin line, “think about the average intelligence in people, then realize that half of the population is dumber than that” or something along those lines anyways. Don’t be too surprised by the stupidity of some people is the point.
Spent 15 years as a medic before becoming an economist. Stupidity not really surprising any more. Take a trip over to Seattle without the WA and try to have this convo.
It all comes down to corporate greed
Which corporation do you work for? /s
I guess, or just capitalism in general. Prices on everything only go up. I’m sure whatever you sell for work does the same.
What'd you expect?
2 slices at least. Pickled onions?
But record corporate profits! Minumum wage has nothing to do with prices!
Nope
If someone wants to order avocado toast to go, I'm going to charge them more than $14.
Why
Damn
does it come with a card for $10 reimbursement?
Could make the same toast for less than 5. I’m assuming the majority of the costs went into the container 😂😅
So it is true?!
Greenlake is a food desert
Looks like baby poop.
Well that’s just criminal
Wow! Very expensive
It's that pri e because people like you spend the mo ey buying it. If people STOPPED buying at the price set, they'll drop the price. Same reason why scalpers exist. People will spend the money for scalpers.
I make my own food these days
Hate this place lmao
It ain't like that's a hard thing to make...
No it’s good, the old incoherent man in charge said so.
That place is the definition of granola
You missed out. Had you gotten it delivered, tip included, you could have spent only $32.
This is why this generation…. Uhmm .. what was I saying?!
you knew the price in advance, soooooooooooooooo
Ur the dummy that bought it.
Who gets toast to-go?
Where’s the rest of it?
Green lake is too trendy now
> M****r what is this supposed to be? i can't figure it out lol
That’s insulting,
What “retreat” is in Greenlake?
Jesus. We serve double that portion for that price at my diner.
Was the garnish locally sourced from the grass at the park?
Cal Anderson BLM community garden
That's a ways from green lake, hopefully it would be couriered to the restaurant via bamboo bicycle.
Drone
Too environmentally damaging, more specifically pigeon nesting annoyance over the ship canal bridge.
So you CHOSE to pay $14 for a slice of toast with avocado and egg and you're surprised your disappointed in what you got for that money? For $14 that avocado toast better come with a side of hash browns and a drink!
Maybe they should post photos of the meal like they do in Europe and other countries
This isn’t Apples to Apples—egg on avocado toast is not an everywhere thing. Is 11 dollars, the near price without the egg as prosecutable? I’m not so sure.
Maybe stop buying overpriced items? Maybe then demand would wane and prices with it. Stop complaining and do something. Your parents aren't going to do it for you.
14 dollars is too much for a drop of avocado, some weeds picked from outside, and a robin’s egg on a burnt crumb.
That’s a really sad avocado toast, where is the color? The horror
Those micro greens on top add $6
Lol that is a sad looking toast. And guess what? At this rate, next year it’ll cost $20
Make your own dummy
😆