OK…so here is how I look at it:

The casual, full service family-dining segment of the restaurant industry (which is the segment that Monti’s generally falls into) is getting rocked by current economic circumstances. Note that I don’t say “by the economy“–because the economy is generally flourishing.

Upscale, fine-dining joints are doing just fine. These expense-account restaurants, as I like to call them, cater to business executives, luxury leisure travellers and the wealthy in general.

How can the same “economy” have such a radically diverse impact upon groups of businesses and consumers in the same cities? Well, imagine that you are a median-income two-job couple with two children living in the suburbs of metro Phoenix. Your home is your primary assett, and you reached for the most house that your salaries would allow. After all, with property values surging every year you can’t go wrong. In your two-car garage is parked a large SUV that is used to shuttle the kids from school to soccer to piano lessons. You have a nice pool–financed, of course, along with that 52″ plasma screen you bought on one of those no-payments-for-one-year deals. Now your teaser rate on the adjustable rate mortgage is about to ratchet up and the SUV is swilling gas down its gullet at…

…$3 per gallon which makes that Exxon stock you have in your portfolio get sweeter by the minute as you lounge around in your 2500 square-foot condo at Kierland that you just spent $2 million on. Good thing you sold all of the Brinker Restaurants (Macaroni Grill, Chilis) shares last year and moved it into energy stocks. And of course, thanks to your excellent credit rating you got a 7% 30 year fixed-rate mortgage. When you’ve got plenty of money it is easy to get more. So let’s stroll down stairs and across the plaza to the wine bar and pop the cork on a nice $70 Jordan Cabernet. No need to take the Mercedes out of the parking garage downstairs…

These are strange times. Some of us are chasing pretty finite resources and incredibly shrinking customers.

What do these items have in common:

Ariz. ranks No. 2 in high-interest mortgages

Catherine Reagor
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 18, 2007 12:00 AM

Arizona ranks No. 2 in the country for the highest percentage of subprime loans, those risky, high-interest mortgages that grabbed national headlines last week with the announcement that delinquencies and defaults are rising.

OSI TO FOCUS ON FLAGSHIP BRAND AS PRIVATE ENTITY

TAMPA, Fla. – OSI Restaurant Partners Inc. plans [...] a $3.63 billion buyout of the Outback Steakhouse parent is expected to gain shareholder approval. [...]OSI will focus on a turnaround of the 953-unit Outback chain, which has struggled since 2005. Most industry analysts agree that OSI is better off regrouping as a private outfit than as one forced to heed shareholder demands.

Casual-dining giants end a tough week on Wall Street
Some of the largest public casual-dining companies took hits on Wall Street the week of March 12 as two analysts cast doubt on the sector because of low price-point promotions that could eat into margins and possible belt-tightening among consumers in the wake of the sub-prime lending bust.

Summer gas may surge to $3

Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 17, 2007 12:00 AM

The specter of more $3-a-gallon gasoline this summer is quickly becoming a reality.