Restaurants Get Creative To Keep Prices Down

BOSTON (CBS) - In recent months Kathy Sidell, owner of the MET Restaurant Group, which operates the Metropolitan Club in Chestnut Hill, among others, has banished Kobe beef burgers from her menu, opting for the less pricey but still high-end USDA prime cut beef burgers and sirloin.

Sidell wanted to tweak her menu without raising prices.

"Basically, the increases have been staggering over the past six months," Sidell told the Boston Business Journal.

Overall, food prices rose 8.1 percent last year, the highest increase in about 30 years, according to the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.

Prices have come down a bit during the first quarter of this year, but they're still extremely high.

Beef is one of the foods that has seen the highest prices increases.

It's risen as much as 20 percent this year.

Other restaurant staples, such as coffee, leafy greens and flour have also gotten much more expensive in the past 12 months.

But, restaurant owners have been getting creative by swapping out more expensive ingredients.

One restaurant is trying to get its waiters to sell extra bottles of wine and desert, and to make money off of specials, because they're losing money on the more expensive dishes that they're not raising the prices on.

Lisa van der Pool of the Boston Business Journal can be seen weekdays at 6 a.m. on WBZ-TV.

You can follow Lisa on Twitter at @lvanderpool.