Mixing a guy with an MBA from Georgetown with a lifetime restaurant worker seems like, at first glance, a recipe for a wacky new sitcom.  However, it’s not a sitcom, though it is a little wacky.  Levent Cakar, the aforementioned MBA, and Damon Bae, the restaurateur, have joined forces for a restaurant with a pretty fresh new gimmick:  the menu prices fluctuate and fall like the stock market.

That’s the gimmick behind the Exchange Bar & Grill, a new restaurant in Manhattan’s Grammercy Park neighborhood.  Located in the shadows of Wall Street, it was a natural for the finance world and the food industry to eventually come together.  Here’s how it works:  basically, the higher the demand, the higher the price.  A pint of beer starts out at $6, but the price can rise as high as $8 or drop as low as $4 depending on demand.  The prices all move in 25-cent increments.  Pretty cool, huh?

I’ve never worked in a restaurant, but I’ve worked in enough grocery stores to know that their system is basically how sale prices work.  When you have too much of something, you simply put it on sale (or in this case drop the price on the ticker) and move your back stock.  When you’re running short, you take it off sale (or in this case, move the price up).  It’s supply and demand; this is how big box stores like Walmart get their great deals.

Tags: stock-market themed restaurant, restaurant prices fluctuate with demand, Exchange Bar and Grill, New York City, Grammercy Park, New York, Manhattan, variable price restaurant, Levent Cakar, Damon Bae

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