What It Costs to Run Saison
Dinner for two at Joshua Skenes's San Francisco stunner will set you back--gulp!--$1,000. Let's run the numbers:
Bonjwing Lee1/8The custom buildout for Saison's kitchen and dining room came in at a cool $2,800,000. Firewood and Charcoal - $700/Week Almond, fruit, and smoking woods--plus high-end binchotan charcoal--keep the custom hearth, wood oven, and smoker blazing. Flowers - $800/Week Natalie Bowen Designs provides custom arrangements. Overhead - $24,000/Month Rent, occupancy costs, and utilities make up a substantial chunk of Saison's operating budget.
Bonjwing Lee2/8The $1,000,000 kitchen is stocked exclusively with Mauviel copper cookware. It has more than 200 pieces. The largest pots cost $1,000.
3/8Food costs, $15,000 week. Luxe ingredients like this live scallop push food expenses to almost 50 percent--way above the industry target of 33 percent.
Adam Friedberg4/8Staff, $88,000/month. For the kitchen and the front of house, Saison has 24 full-time employees to serve no more than 30 diners each night.
Adam Friedberg5/8Aging room, $40,000. This dual-temperature, humidity-controlled room gives Skenes the flexibility to age and store different proteins. One area is set to 55 degrees and is used for charcuterie and shorter-term aging. The other, set to a cooler 38 degrees, is used for dry-aging meats up to seven months.
Adam Friedberg6/8Fish tanks, $15,000. Saison installed four tanks for live seafood; they cost $200 a week to maintain. To fill them, Skenes trained a crew of fishermen to catch and handle product to his standards. He pays them $200 per trip on top of the price of the fish.
Bonjwing Lee7/8Saison pays $136,000/year to rent and staff a two-acre farm in Marin County. Currently, they harvest just a few herbs and greens.
Adam Friedberg8/8The Table - During an 18-course meal, a diner will drink from more than $2,000 worth of glassware and eat from over $10,000 worth of dinnerware.
WINE GLASS $70 Saison's epic wine list demands this artisan-crafted wineglass by Austria's Zalto.
DINING TABLE $8,500 A total of ten walnut tables were custom-made by Original Timber of San Francisco.
WATER GLASS $100 H20 lives large in a mouth-blown, hand-etched glass by the Kimura Glass Company.
FORK, KNIFE, AND SPOON $100 And that's just for one base setting of modern Italian flatware by Mepra.
DINNER PLATE $300 This hand-rolled porcelain plate is made in Germany by Hering Berlin.
CASHMERE THROW $500 Catch a chill easily? Wrap yourself in a custom design by HD Buttercup.
CHAIR $1,000 Skenes chose sturdy walnut chairs by Hans J. Wegner to go with the tables.
