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Las Vegas Restaurants On Recession's Front Lines

The recession is taking its toll on many types of local businesses, but restaurants could be among the hardest hit. The most recent figures show that taxable sales from Clark County restaurants are down by nearly 6%, and the slump is driving some out of business all together.

Over the holiday weekend, fans of Chili's restaurants were in for a rude surprise. Three of the chain's locations in Las Vegas closed suddenly last week. The spokesperson for the parent company, Brinker International, says the local closures are part of a larger national move to close underperforming locations - due to the weak economy.

Some restaurants are weathering the storm better than others, and many are surviving by operating smart and focusing in on expenses.

Bob Ansara has been in the local restaurant business for nearly 30 years. At Ricardo's, he is hunkering down during the recession by reducing staff, changing his thinking, and looking at every aspect of his expenses.

"We used to step over pennies, nickels and dimes looking for dollars," Ansara says. "Today we bend down and we look at every single penny from a paper-wrapped straw to the way we roll flatware, to how we buy soap, to how we schedule people."

Ansara says he's not surprised so see so many restaurants going out of business in the current economic environment, "Historically, restaurants have a high failure rate because we are typically gutsy, under capitalized, hopeful thinking entrepreneurs. So our failure rate is higher than some of the other industries."

KNPR food critic and Eyewitness News contributor John Curtas says some strip restaurants are experiencing at 40% drop in business, ant its not much better in the neighborhoods.

"There are a lot of people teetering," Curtis says.

He points to Becker's Steakhouse on Buffalo near Lake Mead as a sign of just how tough times are in the local dining scene. Now closed, the steakhouse also had video poker - a combination that used to be an unbeatable ticket to survival even in tough economic times.

"We are going to see a contraction," Curtis says. "We are in the middle of one and some of the pins are going to start falling I would say in the next 6 months. They were trying to hold out through Valentine's Day, Presidents Day."

Despite closed restaurants like Chili's, Bob Ansara says he is still optimistic about the future. He says the day will come when local restaurants like his look back and  know they are much smarter in the way they operate because of what they are going through right now.