The early bird special at Cafe Prima Pasta began last year after the restaurant’s owner, Gerardo Cea, lost all his savings in real estate and began seeing his regular customers at the supermarket.
“They weren’t coming anymore,” Mr. Cea said. “They couldn’t afford it.”
He expected his offer of a 50 percent discount before 6 p.m. to attract the usual crowd of frugal retirees. But word kept spreading, and on most nights now, at least half the tables are filled with young families, singles or hip couples ”” women in short skirts and men who prefer “dude” to “sir…..”
“The value of money has changed in America,” said James Accursio, whose family has owned the Capri, an Italian restaurant in Florida City, since it opened in 1958. “We’re not high rollers anymore.”
They’re going to need that frugality when massive inflation sets in, as it must given the way the government is printing money.