ONCE UPON A time, $50 could get you dinner for two and a pair of seats in the back of a darkened theater. Today it can get you one entrée and a DVD rental. Despite the lagging economy, the cost of dining out is higher than ever, with entrée prices sometimes surpassing the $40 mark at many of Boston’s best restaurants.

Why? The reasons are there in black and white (or perhaps ebony and taupe). Take a closer look at the menu. Alongside prices of $42 and $45 you’ll find terms like " day boat " and " organic. " You’ll see names like Pat Woodbury and Niman Ranch. And though these words and names might not mean anything to you, the cost of the products they refer to may be doubling your restaurant tab.

Blame — or thank — the Chefs Collaborative, a nonprofit national organization that counts many Boston chefs, including Paul O’Connell of Chez Henri, Jody Adams of Rialto, Jasper White of the Summer Shack, Lydia Shire of Biba, and Ana Sortun of Oleana among its members. The group’s purpose is to promote " sound food choices [that] emphasize locally grown, seasonally fresh, and whole or minimally processed ingredients " — sustainable foods that are harvested without harming the environment, and that are purchased, whenever possible, from local purveyors and growers.

Ecological correctness is nothing new. But this particular movement comes from the top down — starting with the chefs, not the consumers. It’s not about people marching in the streets protesting bioengineered vegetables; rather, it’s an effort by chefs to shift food-consumption practices through their menus. Noble as this effort may be, it’s not without cost. And as menu prices reflect this philosophy, the chefs bear the onus of justifying the rising prices and convincing consumers that sustainable foods are worth it.

To this end, chefs try to educate their customers without cutting into the fun of dining out. " The key to conveying the importance of local products is through careful menu wording, " says Amy Bodiker, program director of the Chefs Collaborative. " You don’t want to scold people. You want people to enjoy the story behind the food, the sense of community, the sense of place. It’s about bringing the culture in, matching a face to the items. "

Stan Frankenthaler, chef/owner of Salamander and a Chefs Collaborative board member, included a full-page mission statement (now down to a tight paragraph) in his menu, which explains his philosophy without explicitly making the connection between ethics and prices. " Some of the ideals sound very grassrootsy, very liberal, very hippie-esque, " he admits. " But food professionals and people who are interested in food are interested in these issues. "

Other chefs let the menu speak for itself, dropping names and catchwords like clues. West Newton’s Lumière, for example, offers " braised Niman Ranch lamb shank " with white-bean ragoût, niçoise olives, and gremolata. No. 9 Park features " day boat halibut " with " manila clams, bronze fennel, ragoût of legumes, " and an appetizer of native asparagus with warm morel vinaigrette. Olives offers " brick-oven roasted Bell & Evans boneless chicken ‘oreganato’ rubbed with oregano & lemon served over spring peas & feta. "

So what does all this mean? If you ask, chefs will tell you that Pat Woodbury is a regular guy who grows clams. A few times a week he drives up to Boston from Wellfleet on the Cape to deliver those clams to restaurants, sometimes with his kids. Line-caught fish are fish snared with a hook and line; that practice is more sustainable than lowering a large net and scooping up any fish that happen to get in the way. Niman Ranch’s cattle are raised without growth hormones or antibiotics, fed natural diets, and raised and slaughtered as humanely as possible. Bell & Evans chickens are not organic; but Chefs Collaborative member Steve Johnson, chef/owner of the Blue Room, says they are " happy chickens, so to speak, " free to roam and fed a natural diet. Then there are the farmers. Steve Parker is a guy who grows vegetables in Waltham, delivering the day’s bounty to restaurants. Nesenkeg and Verrill Farms are local farms, plain and simple. For every grower, planter, fisherman, and rancher, there is a story.

ThE BIGGER story, though, is not always simple. For one thing, the central tenets of the Chefs Collaborative philosophy sometimes conflict: " local " and " sustainable " don’t always go hand in hand. Increasingly, for example, chefs must decide whether it is more important to support a local fisherman or a sustainable one (who uses a hook and line). It’s easy to avoid buying from the giant boats that go out to sea, dragging a giant net and disturbing the fragile ecosystem. But there are also local fishermen who use nets as they try to make a living with their day boats. " I have issues with restaurants saying that they’re only going to buy hook fish, " says Kim Marden of Captain Marden’s Seafoods, which supplies many of Boston’s restaurants. " Are they really accomplishing a valid point by doing this? I say no. I agree in principle, but in reality, no. Is the fish that much better on the hook? They’re catching the exact same fish. "

" Still, " Marden concedes, " we’ll do whatever the chefs want. "

Perhaps even more troubling is the fear that sustainable foods are creating a culinary elite. Niman Ranch boneless pork loin costs 147 percent more than regular supermarket prices; whole chickens from Summerfield Farm, another favorite producer, are 158 percent more than Perdue’s; Summerfield’s beef sirloin is about twice as much as supermarket beef. Environmentally friendly fish can cost anywhere from 20 to 100 percent more than net-caught fish.

Some chefs try to hold overall prices down even in the face of these costs. " We go for cuts that are a little less expensive, always with the idea of flavor in mind, " explains Johnson, who says that buying locally has not turned out to be more expensive for his restaurant. " People love the skirt steak at the Blue Room — it’s one of my favorite cuts of meat for grilling, and the kind of cut you don’t find in finer restaurants. " Cuts such as pork butt, short ribs, and lamb shanks — just as flavorful as the more expensive pork tenderloin, rib eye, and rack of lamb — are showing up on menus more and more frequently.

And some restaurants that do serve the more expensive cuts (such as a 16-ounce, double-thick Niman Ranch pork chop, at $6.15 per pound) rein in menu prices by choosing less expensive preparations and side dishes — a spice-rubbed chop with wilted greens and sweet potatoes mashed with Vermont maple syrup, for example, as opposed to a Roquefort-stuffed chop with garlic flan, broccoli rabe, and spring mushrooms. Not only does the second plate use costlier ingredients, but it features more labor-intensive components, such as the flan.

These solutions help restaurants such as Lumière, Flora, and the Blue Room feature Niman Ranch meats while keeping their menu prices at or below $30. It’s not easy, though: Michael Leviton, chef/owner of Lumière, uses only Niman Ranch meats and concedes that he’s not making as much profit on certain dishes. And even these meals aren’t exactly cheap. It wasn’t so long ago that $20 entrée prices were strictly special-occasion territory.

For some restaurants, the commitment to sustainable foods is paying off. Says Salamander’s Stan Frankenthaler, " How does a customer decide what restaurant to go to? What factors weigh in? Style of restaurant, flavors of food, quality and formality of service, certainly, but also the intangibles — ownership, personalities, ideals, community standing. There are a large number of customers who come [to Salamander] not only for the flavor and ambiance but because they believe in and share our ethic: sourcing local, seasonal, sustainable ingredients. "

But for every customer who chooses to eat in a restaurant that follows the Chefs Collaborative philosophy, there is a customer who doesn’t think — or care — to ask about the brand names or read the menu’s mission statement. Not everyone wants a side of philosophy with that entrée, and there is a fine line between enlightening and preaching. Some people simply don’t care where their food comes from, as long as it tastes good. To these people, the high prices can’t possibly make sense, and may lend a sour flavor to the sustainable-foods message. Says Steve Johnson: " Breeding an elite class of restaurants is not good PR for the Collaborative. "

Other Chefs Collaborative members, however, aren’t troubled. " That the foods cost more shouldn’t be seen as elitism, " says Frankenthaler. " People who cook understand what it means to nurture through food and are willing to pay more for that food. "

" It’s not about elitism, " agrees Amy Bodiker. " It’s about not wasting things. It’s not easy, because things are more expensive, but by creating a market for it, prices will come down. "

Perhaps that will happen; perhaps the Chefs Collaborative will succeed in educating consumers about the origins of their dinners, and restaurant customers will demand — and gladly pay for — sustainable foods. Indeed, as the Chefs Collaborative principles have allowed chefs to cultivate a new type of consumer, business at some restaurants has never been better.

But these principles have also brought the issue of dining costs to the forefront, and it’s undoubtedly driven some customers away. Some chefs feel burned by a public that wants the very best but then balks at the high prices, as if restaurants, unlike other businesses, aren’t supposed to turn a profit.

Ultimately, though, it may be the wavering economy that has the final word.

" Are restaurant prices out of hand? Yes and no, " says Johnson. " Restaurant prices are a function of what the market will bear. "

Keri Fisher is a food writer living in Belmont. She can be reached at fishfood72@earthlink.net.

Issue Date: August 2 - 9, 2001