Times Like These

The current plight of the restaurant industry is now garnering comparisons to the bubble bursts of the financial and real estate sectors. LA's own Joachim Splichal shares a very telling quote—“I was one of the celebrity chefs who started opening more and more restaurants, and now we are totally overbuilt”—but the biggest restaurant meltdown might be Vegas: "Elizabeth Blau, who worked with Steve Wynn to bring many top chefs to Las Vegas and is a partner in four restaurants there, said that with restaurant business plunging since September, the market is being tested ... 'Las Vegas is like the subprime mortgage market of restaurants,' she said. 'This may be a healthy correction.'" [NYT]