Visiting Ann

Today I dined at Ann's Snack Bar. I'm unclear why she named it a "snack" bar. If those burgers are just a snack, it's no wonder there's a huge obesity problem in America... and there are no booze.

Ann's Snack Bar is home of the Ghetto Burger, and the lesser known Hood Burger. The Ghetto Burger was named America's Number One burger, but the shop doesn't readily advertise who/what rated it this. After some minimal googling (yep, that's truly an official word now) I found this Wall Street Journal article, "The Best Burger" from March 2007. I also found this video telling firsthand of the devotion to the Ghetto Burger. (If you're interested in the other interview with this fan, note it has undesirable language, amusingly when he quotes his 14-year old son.)

Ann Price, the owner and cook, only allows as many people as there are stools, eight, to come inside the restaurant. Others must wait patiently on the patio until there is an opening. This means it is likely at almost any time of day there will be a minimum 60 minute wait... even for takeout orders. These are treated the same as other orders. To place one, the customer must be seated at an available stool and wait as any other patron. I couldn't figure out why someone would wait that long and not go ahead and eat it at the counter.

What I didn't anticipate was the wait once we were seated, just to take our order. Miss Ann takes the orders on one side of the cash register and then takes the orders on the other side. Then she cooks them all together. Thus rather than turning stools in a traditional manner, the entire restaurant is treated as one table. If one patron takes a long time to eat and get out, he/she can hold up the cooking start of all eight of the next orders. At Miss Ann's age and celebrity status, I suppose this is acceptable. Maybe she even likes the to-go orders, since they won't hold up the turnover.

However, I couldn't help but think of how much money she was giving up. Additionally, with canned sodas at only $.80 (that's less than I paid out of the machine at school!) that come with a cup and ice, I'm guessing the profit there is quite small. She has the Ghetto and Hood burgers priced much higher than other burgers on the board, nearly twice the price, with upgrades including bacon, lettuce and tomato. That's a large profit margin. I also noted she sells t-shirts at $20 a pop- OUCH; thus, she must be making some money, although no one bought one while I was there. My dining partner and I both wondered if you have to wait for a stool to order only a t-shirt.

Anyhoo... money isn't everything. Or is it? The New York Times wrote an article, "Burgers Selling Fast, But the Restaurant is Not." Miss Ann's original asking price for her restaurant was set at $1.5 million. The price approximately a year ago was down to just under $.5 million. (I noted as of January of this year it was back up to $1.25 million. Thus I'm unsure what a potential buyer should actually expect.) WOW!

That's a lot for a recipe and 17,000 square feet of land. Sure you will get a hood system and sink- no small expense, and some small pieces of equipment, but that's it. The place needs a serious scrubbing and updates. The residential stove and refrigerators work, but to take Ann's shack to a more profitable level and expand the seating area, I'm guessing a large input of cash is required. Add to this the mortgage payment for the land and building, an owner will likely have to raise prices. That won't sit well with some of Miss Ann's devoted customers. Even without a price increase, will regulars come for a burger without seeing Miss Ann?

I'm glad I got to experience the legend before it's sold. I also hope to one day develop a recipe worth half million big ones!