Acclaimed Oakland Eatery Daytrip to Shut Down Amid Financial Struggles

Next month, Daytrip, the Oakland eatery that had wowed patrons with its fermentation-forward menu and fair payment policies, will close.Owners Stella Dennig and Finn Stern, a husband-wife team, acknowledged financial difficulties as a result of the business plan they have been pursuing since 2021, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. According to Dennig, they were “operating a business model that we just can’t get to work” and experiencing rapid financial losses, particularly this year.

Renowned for its unique celery salad and dedication to industry fairness by enacting a 20% service charge that is divided equally among employees, the restaurant has won over both customers and business experts, landing a place on Bon Appetit’s list of the top 10 new restaurants in 2022. But even with a labor cost expectation that was higher than the conventional model—45% as opposed to the usual 30%—Daytrip’s statistics this year were in the range of 55% to 60%, which is a run-on sentence that shows how difficult it is to strike a balance between their idealistic goal and realistic economics. Daytrip’s problems were made worse by rising component costs and a 20% decline in sales from July to November this year over the previous year.

This year, local establishments like Duende and Lion Dance Cafe have closed, which is indicative of the broader issues plaguing the Bay Area’s dining industry. According to Dennig in anSFGATE interview, “The frequency with which regulars come in is more spread out, and that is a product of inflation and prices going up everywhere, and income decreasing, and all of that combined means that it’s harder to go out at a place like Daytrip as often.”

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