‘Good, Fast, and Cheaper’ – Texas Inn Reduces Menu Prices

After leveraging lower food costs with vendors and finding local sources for many of its day-to-day needs, Texas Inn has been able to lower prices on close to half of its menu items. 

“We’ve always been known for 'good, fast, and cheap” food, but in the last five years, we have struggled to provide value for customers,” Dave Saunders, Managing Partner and Owner of the Virginia-based restaurant, shared with Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine. “We knew double-digit inflation couldn’t last forever, so we started looking at every way we could reduce costs and be more competitive.”

This process included sharpening the pencil in every area, from renegotiating vendor contracts and leveraging group buying power to sourcing locally and reducing delivery costs, he explained. Because only a few items, such as coffee and some produce, come from overseas, he does not expect to be affected by or is worried about tariffs. A lot of their vendors are local to Virginia. For example, eggs are sourced from a farm in Amelia County, Virginia, and the hot dogs in us are Virginia-based.

“After we started utilizing a food cost analysis, we found we had been using ‘how we feel’ to drive price decisions instead of data,” Saunders explained. “The data discovered by the analysis showed us that some of our higher volume items, such as hot dogs and breakfast plates, were priced the same or even higher than some competitors, and we’ve always been a low-cost leader. This led us to make a change. In a few weeks, we developed a new pricing strategy and began rolling it out in our locations across Virginia. Our most popular burger, The Cheesy Western, is now down 50 cents to $6.49. Our famous dogs were $3.99, but are now priced at $3.49, and crinkle cut fries are now $3.99, down $1.50.”

After streamlining offerings and retraining staff on the new pricing, the eatery saw an immediate increase in customer satisfaction, he added. Saunders stresses this isn’t a limited-time offer; but a long-term commitment to providing more value and serving the community. 

“We’d like for this to be permanent, but you never really know what tomorrow looks like. We’re betting the days of double-digit inflation are behind us. We look at food costs every month on the fifth.”

Known as “The T Room” by regulars, Texas Inn was founded in 1935 has four locations in Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, and Richmond, and Cornerstone.

Saunders encourages other restaurateurs to examine their own menus to see where they can be more efficient and create value for their guests.

“As an almost 90-year-old establishment, we’ve cultivated some really, really long relationships. We’ve always been bold about our strategies, whether that’s simply our voice on social media, or taking a good, hard look inward to know what we can change for the benefit of our customers. We make bold moves, and that’s something we’d encourage any restaurateur to do. Make the move, and let your customers know how you’re passing the benefits on to them. Our customers know we’re not going anywhere; they want to stick with us and keep our business going.”