The Difficult Art of Keeping a Restaurant Afloat

From a New York Times guest essay by Vivian Howard headlined “The Impossible Art of Keeping a Restaurant Afloat”:

DEEP RUN, N.C. — When René Redzepi announced he would close Noma, his Michelin three-star restaurant/work camp in Copenhagen, food magazines and newspapers treated the inability to run a profitable business as Mr. Redzepi’s problem. That is, a problem that emerges only when you call your kitchen a lab and your cooks will work without pay, just to have your name on their résumé. But extremist fine dining’s challenges are just the amuse-bouche in a multicourse menu of the rotting state of the restaurant business.