For the same reasons that Porto sandwiches worked well, the banh mis worked well for Disneyland too, especially its fine eaten cold. Their banh mis was big too- foot long cut into two sections.
The burritos didn’t work so well at the park, simply because they were meant to be enjoyed hot, and cold and soggy burrito were fine as a quick way to refuel in the lines and not have to sit down for food, but not especially tasty cold.
Nonetheless, taking bite sized foods including the small Zacatecan burritos worked real well again for multiple dizzying rides on the Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, etc.
I guess it depends on the area. If you had been in Santa Ana, prices would likely had been lower than in Anaheim. But Santa Ana isn’t likely to get many visits by tourists to those looking for high end food.
I think trendiness and real estate/location affects prices in LA/SoCal. Something about celeb, influencer culture and it being LA but I can’t pin it. Erewhon is an extreme example, with insane prices ($20 smoothies) but in high end areas. I don’t think it would do well in the Bay Area, although i could be wrong. Bay Area has a BS sniffer built in to culture.
The ethnic food however is very reasonable, good and thriving, more so than the Bay Area. Think Jonathan Gold. A lot of this is about real estate and huge spread out geographics. Lots of driving but you can still find hidden gems and mom and pop places in small strip malls and un-trendy areas. There’s also the population to support these places and concentrated areas.
It use to be just about everything like groceries or household items were always less expensive in SoCal but no longer. I don’t know why, like did overhead catch up, or large grocery chains and distribution change?
BTW, ethnic places (Bay Area and LA) tend to keep their prices down for community reason….not making a killing, making a living sort of thing. Porto’s included as Cuban immigrants. Out pricing your core community isn’t a good idea since they brought you success.
Porto’s isn’t chichi, although it is very popular and yes, trendy. The family who owns it has always been very good about keeping prices under control and AFAIK, the prices are pretty much the same in each branch.
Not sure if I would agree as it has much to do with celeb, influencers etc. as we are talking about comparing well established restaurants in the mid and higher level which are wide spread (>>100’s of them in both cities) but don’t have to rely on celeb and influencers. We eat out a lot in SF and travel quite regularly to LA but somehow similar restaurants/dishes in LA tend to be $5-10 more expensive and cocktails $2-3. I think LA restaurants tend to push a bit harder with prices and apparently LA people tend to be more willing to pay those differences (but I am not sure how long they can push the prices further and the turnover/closure rate in both cities is quite high - and we will see how the situation might get much, much worth if certain policy changes might be implemented after 1/20 which could have a dramatic effect on the workforce on restaurants and producers)
I think Erewhon would do quite well in SF (in the right places) but I also think it is just an extreme outlier even for LA (andeven there works only in very few places) and doesn’t represent supermarkets at all.
How do you define “down” - yes, they are cheaper than your Italian/New American/French restaurants but those tend to be in higher rent areas and often use better quality ingredients (and can have more refined service). Ethnic places which are in higher rent areas and/or use better quality ingredients often tend to have comparable prices to the “non-ethnic” places. I don’t think the profit margin (in %) is much different between those types of restaurants
You’re probably right about influencer culture being overblown or out of place, but the trendiness of things LA and adding $$$ for trendy is very real. The celeb stuff is real however….but I don’t buy into it and actively avoid.
As for ethnic food, it’s often less expensive because of immigrant status and the communities at their core. Need an example: taco trucks vs. trendy tacos, think Pink Taco in LA (yeah, double entendre). I think Italian food has long jumped the “ethnic food” ghetto and higher prices seem justified because it’s European and often gets a romanticized view, unlike the expectations of Mexican and Chinese food should be inexpensive, which those communities often think as well or internalize. But there are hole-in-the-wall places that keep “it should be cheap” alive.
Interestingly enough, as Cantonese food seems to be lagging (fewer master chefs) and new Chinese immigrants bringing other regional Chinese, Cantonese food might be making the jump like Italian food….with 3rd and 4th gen chefs taking up the mantle. See Four Kings and Mr. Jiu’s.
Those chefs realize that higher quality ingredients lead to better dishes (and higher prices). I like hole-in-the-wall places but often think many people tend to ignore the fact that even though the food is tasty the ingredient quality (especially meat) is often not great (and so it would be hard to justify significant higher prices)
