Have you ever been to a top notch barbecue restaurant and been in shock at the price of brisket? Or any barbecue for that matter? Why is brisket so expensive? I am primarily talking about the price of brisket at a bbq restaurant, not the price of the meat itself.
Now first things first, this is in no way a complaint about the price of brisket at a barbecue restaurant. There are legitimate reasons why brisket is so expensive and I am going to explain why it costs so much more than a raw brisket. Many of my friends freak out about the price of brisket on a restaurant menu but there is a lot that goes into it. I am totally fine with the price of brisket and a good barbecue restaurant.
At the restaurants I checked across the country the current price of brisket is around $25-$30 per pound. Some places are as high as $35. And if you decide to order some brisket from Goldbelly or a place like Southside Market it can be even more than that. Add in a few sides, a drink or two, and a good brisket dinner can easily push into the $50 range. That is encroaching into the price of a good steak dinner. So if brisket is one of the cheapest cuts of beef to buy at retail why does it cost so much at a restaurant?
There are four primary factors that go into the price of brisket at a barbecue restaurant:
- Price of the raw brisket
- The Time to Cook a Brisket
- Cooking and Trimming Weight Loss
- Margin for the Restaurant
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The Price of the Raw Brisket
A couple years ago you could get brisket for about $3 per pound. Now that price has climbed to around $5 per pound. That $2 per pound might not sound like much but when you are talking about a 15 lb brisket that is an extra $30. Restaurants use a variety of different grades of brisket and some of them might use a lower quality brisket but a good prime brisket will usually be in that $4-$5 range. If they are a really bougie restaurant and use an American Wagyu brisket from Snake River Farms like pictured above that would be at least $10 per pound. But even at $5 per pound that is one of the cheapest cuts of beef you can buy.
So what else goes into the cost of brisket at a restaurant?
The Time to Cook a Brisket
A restaurant can cook a steak in just a few minutes. Pasta dishes might take around 10 minutes. Seafood can also be done in under 10 minutes in most cases. But a good smoked brisket? That usually takes 12-16 hours to cook. And someone needs to man those pits the whole time.
That 12 hours doesn’t include the time to trim and season the briskets or slice and serve them either. So it is a much longer process than most restaurant meals. And that is time that the restaurant owner needs to pay for.
Cooking and Trimming Weight Loss
A 15 pound brisket doesn’t turn into 15 pounds of meat that can be sold. Trimming usually takes about 2 pounds off the brisket so that is down to 13 pounds. When a brisket is cooked it will lose a bit more than half of its weight as well. And when cutting there are always some little bits and ends that aren’t quite worth putting on a plate.
So if you start with a 15 lb brisket a restaurant will only end up with about 6-7 pounds of brisket that can be served. That $5 a pound brisket can quickly become $10-12 per pound or more when all that is factored in.
Margin for the Restaurant
Generally speaking restaurants try to shoot for a 30% food cost. So the restaurant food costs for a $30 meal would be about $10. If we are talking about a brisket that $30 a pound brisket should cost the restaurant about $10 per pound. Factor in payroll, insurance, rent, furnishings, equipment, etc. most restaurants are happy to eek out a 3-5% margin. If food costs get much beyond that 30% the overall margins can take a big hit.
Factor in the cost of the meat, the time and skill it takes to cook good barbecue, and the weight loss of the brisket due to trimming and cooking that $30 a pound brisket starts to seem a bit more reasonable. If you aren’t comfortable paying $30 a pound for brisket you can go ahead and buy your own brisket, buy a smoker, learn how to smoke a brisket, mess up a bunch of briskets, spend 12-16 hours smoking your brisket, make a quality brisket yourself.
So the next time you think about complaining about the price of brisket at a good barbecue restaurant take some time to think through some of these factors. $30 a pound is a totally reasonable price for some quality brisket and might even be a bargain once you think about all that goes into a good brisket.
