Great little post on NY mag I found regarding menu’s in restaurants.   This one covers the higher priced places but references some chain restaurant tricks as well.  I always knew there was a lot of pscycology behind advertisments in general but I hadn’t thought about the structure of a menu in a restaurant and how it contains all kinds of wonderful little tricks.  Give it a look over, I think you’ll find it interesting.  Oh, and apparently this is an excerpt from a book that will be coming out this year entitled

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)

Read more: Author William Poundstone Dissects the Marketing Tricks Built Into Balthazar’s Menu — New York Magazine http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/62498/#ixzz0cAp0ckWi

I think what is so fascinating about the article is not necessarily the content but what it implies about restaurant hierarchy and what the “do’s and don’ts” are of each tier.  My head is filled with images of a caste type system for the structure of restaurants; societal in nature.  I can see the higher priced cuisine restaurants that carry specialty items on the menu just sneering down at the chain food restaurants and their despicable habits, while the chains are looking at themselves with pride, touting a better, more healthy meal than those bottom of the barrel fast food joints.  And what do they have to look down on?  Taco trucks?  Street Vendors?  Sometimes those 2 am street vending hotdog guys can give you a run for your money there, Mr. Snooty fancy-pants restaurants!  Oh if only walls and carts could talk…