8. Just when we see that the recession is ending, here is an update on the New Economy:    Bubble Bursts for San Francisco Eateries, March 18, 2002, By Andrea Orr

San Francisco (Reuters) - "When the Internet bubble swelled in the late 1990s, $100-a-bottle of wine flowed like Evian water and entrepreneurs whet their appetites on $70 plates of caviar before diving into five-course, expense account meals.

Now the bubble is bursting for the restaurants that catered to the hard-working, free-spending dot-com crowd.

Many restaurants around this city, long dependent on tourist traffic, are feeling the pinch of the recession. But the loss of diners is especially severe at some of the trendiest places, which had set up virtual assembly lines serving foie gras, truffles, expensive wines and a lot of attitude.

"We were kind of the place for the chic, young, Prada-wearing, cell phone-carrying, CNBC-watching crowd, and for a while we were packed every night," explained Bruce McDonald, owner of the Foreign Cinema restaurant in San Francisco's Mission district.

Foreign Cinema, located in a spacious warehouse, complete with a wall-sized movie screen for diners' entertainment, used to serve 400 people a night. That number fell to as few as 30 late last year, as unemployment in the Internet sector mounted and surviving dot-com companies started watching their pennies.

To try to win back customers, Foreign Cinema recently revamped its pricey French Bistro menu to offer somewhat lower priced American comfort food like pork chops.

The film fare has changed, from esoteric foreign films to some cheerier all-American musicals like "Singing in the Rain." Comfort entertainment to go with the comfort food, which it is serving in increasingly large portions.

Foreign Cinema sees its moves as critical to its survival. It wants to reach out to an older, somewhat less stylish crowd that may not have money to burn but has enough to eat out from time to time.

"I do mourn the old days," McDonald said. "Life was a hell of a lot easier and you could count on a lot of money coming in. Now you have to work hard for it."

Wine prices doubled for no other reason than that the expensive ones sold faster. Hawthorne Lane, another South of Market restaurant now having an identity crisis, recently removed a number of $500 wines from its selection. It also added a few low-priced pasta entrees, and doubled the number of side orders and appetizers. ""
                                         * * *   END   * * *

                     To quote a genius, "That's all folks."