A few years back a new restaurant took over a dying restaurant in North Beach in San Francisco. The new name was Vitali's which was appropriate for the neighborhood. The location was OK.
The first sign of trouble, to me, was that no sign of 'new restaurant' was put up. It appeared to be an effort to mislead old customers who didn't know the old place died. Very little was changed in the dinning room, mostly replacing everything with cheaper versions.
I never ate there, I just walked past every day and looked at the constantly changing menu. The number of customers was small to begin with at dinner and got smaller. As the number of customers got smaller the prices on the menu rose rapidly. From a main course in the $10 range it rose to $15 in two weeks.
Finally, I was seeing evenings with no customers and the owner sitting outside smoking a cigarette ( a chef smoking has always been a bad sign to me, it means little or no tasting ability). I struck up a conversation and finally asked him why his prices were rising as the number of customers declined.
"I have to cover my overhead" he replied.
This is just a preface to my letting you know that the San Francisco Chronicle, which is continuing to cut staff, and still losing money and customers, has raised the newsstand price from $.75 to $1.00.
I always wondered what Mr. Vitali did after he closed his restaurant. Is he in management at the Chronicle?