What will Trump's term mean for restaurants?

We're talking about a shift in fine dining and finding work-life balance in someone else's kitchen. But first: A Sabrina Carpenter cafe is popping up in L.A. Get an espresso and pull up a chair for the latest edition of The Prep. 

On the menu:
💠 What the Trump presidency means for restaurants
💠 What's happening with wages for restaurants?
💠 Gifts for the chefs in your life
💠 Texas restaurants are ready for Michelin

What we’re following: How Trump's policies could impact the restaurant industry. The president-elect has said he supports raising tariffs on foreign goods, ending income taxes on gratuities for tipped workers and a more stringent immigration policy.  

On our radar: The latest news on wages. Massachusetts voters rejected a measure to raise the tipped minimum wage, with support from the state’s Democratic governor. Missouri voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. Getting to $15 will take a bit longer in Alaska. California’s Proposition 32 results, which would raise the minimum wage to $18, were still too close to call at press time.

What we want to see more of: Cookbook stores! “Food is the ultimate icebreaker that brings people together,” says Liz Hottel of the cookbook shop Bold Fork in Washington, D.C. “Culinary bookstores are this very singular third space in a way that a normal bookstore or restaurant is not.”

Just for fun: Did you know Disney’s newest cruise ship will have more than 20 restaurants and bars?

Plus: The best culinary gifts for chefs, according to chefs and restaurant owners

Fine dining-adjacent restaurants crop up

High-end restaurant operators are increasingly interested in operating what Flynn McGarry describes as an “in-between restaurant.” The wunderkind NYC-based chef recently reimagined his former 12-course tasting menu restaurant Gem into Gem Wine, something a lot more casual and less constrained. “Guests have the option to not look at us as a restaurant,” he says. This means diners can order a drink, one small plate, or a full meal. Other bar-restaurant hybrids emerging from fine-dining spots include Bar Esmé, a more casual restaurant within Chicago’s Esmé. These spots are a response to the current economic climate and a way of meeting diners where they are (or where their wallets are). And they give both chefs and diners permission to let loose a bit in a way that they might not at formal fine-dining spots. (Robb Report) 

Restaurant chefs find work-life balance as personal chefs

The growth of personal chef work has benefited diners — and the chefs feeding them. The roughly $15 billion personal chef industry is projected to grow by 6.5% by 2030, according to consulting firm Grand View Research. And some former restaurant chefs have found refuge in a different kind of kitchen. "Typically when you work in a restaurant, you're there whenever they need you ... The busiest days are holidays, so you end up missing out on time with your family," says chef Sommer Sellers, the fourth-place finisher in Season 21 of Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen. But being a personal chef offered her work-life balance and more money. (Gothamist)

"When you are a server and you are the face of the restaurant and your salary is dependent on how your customers perceive you, they want to see someone who is happy to be at their job. And not only doing a good job but looking like they’re enjoying doing it."

-The Bitchy Waiter Darron Cardosa  (🎧Tinfoil Swans) 

💠 Meet the rising stars of fine dining

💠 Texas restaurants are stoked for the Michelin Guide

💠 Pacific Northwest coffee pioneer Jim and Patty’s Coffee to close

1,200

Number of restaurants that added all-you-can-eat or drink options to menus between Feb. and Aug., according to tech provider SpotOn. (Restaurant Hospitality)

Thank you for reading The Prep.

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