Weekend Post

One of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles is the Apple Pan. I love it for lots of reasons but probably the main one is I’ve been going there all my life and the quality and menu has NEVER changed. There’s a dependability of excellence and they never disappoint. Waiters are fast (many have been there for 40 years), the portions are large, everything is delicious, and your order is up within five minutes no matter how busy they are.

Basically they do everything right that fellow burger peddler Mel’s Drive In does wrong.

I used to love Mel’s Drive In. Large menu, good food, decent portions, reasonable prices, open all hours, and a very cool '50s retro atmosphere. There are a number of Mel’s Drive In’s in the southland, but the one on the Sunset Strip is fabulous for people watching. Musicians and folks sporting piercings in places you didn’t know could be pierced all congregate along with families and actors who were once on a series in the ‘80s. The décor is ‘50s-themed with photos of AMERICAN GRAFFITI prominently displayed. Juke boxes at each table allowed you to hear your favorite golden oldies. It was a fun place. On the weekends there were great brunch specials, the menus were always filled with inserts featuring yummy additional items.

But over the last year they’ve made a conscious effort to scrimp, assuming I suppose, that the customers wouldn’t notice.

They were wrong.

Portions started shrinking, the menu was completely overhauled and is maybe half as big. There are fewer servers. Orders take longer to arrive. They run out of nightly specials by 6:00 pm. Even little things like napkin dispensers were removed. How much money does the company save on napkins? The meat is different, bakery products are different or gone, salads are woeful. Juke boxes are even gone. It’s as if they’re trying to distance themselves from their brand.

I complained to the manager and asked if I was the only one. “No,” she said, “There are a lot of complaints from customers on the menu and their favorite items now gone.”

The result of this penny-saving new approach is obvious. They’re losing customers. Long time customers. What’s really stupid about this is that LA offers lots of choices. If I stop going to Mel’s there are plenty of other places I can go. Hundreds. There’s even Café ‘50s that features the same retro vibe with a bigger menu.

I’m sure the corporation that owns the Mel's franchise would point to numbers and equations that show that they’re losing 39 cents a year by offering rotisserie chicken and napkins could easily bring down the entire enterprise if not doled out judiciously, but the loss of good faith and customers is a number they better take into consideration as well.

The restaurant business is fickle. They close every day. Who remembers Johnny Rocket’s? Developing loyal customers is a gift and a luxury not many establishments enjoy. And when they lose steady customers they are hard pressed to get them back. We move on. We find new places. It’s only diner food for God sakess.

I would bet 90% or more of the Apple Pan’s business is repeat customers. It’s always packed. But every burger, for example, has an inch of lettuce. I bet they’d save $250,000 a year if they cut it to half an inch. But they don’t. And never will.  When you leave they ask if you’d like more coffee or ice tea to go. A corporate number cruncher would say that’s another $100,000 a year in unnecessary costs. The Apple Pan would say, “It’s a nice touch.” Mel’s would say “Nothing extra to go and charge a quarter more for the coffee.”

And that’s why I will continue to go to the Apple Pan, and introduce friends to the Apple Pan, and wave at Mel's as I drive by on the way to Apple Pan. 

from By Ken Levine