Dinnertime
Which restaurant each house eats at, competition on price and distance, your item price, garden and milestone bonuses, Waitresses and CFO, and breaking the bank.
Who eats where
Nobody makes decisions in this phase. Go through the houses one at a time, lowest number first. A house with no demand counters stays home. Otherwise it eats at an open restaurant that meets both conditions:
- the restaurant is connected by road to the house, at any distance; and
- its chain has in stock every item the house’s demand counters ask for — a full set, or more.
A chain short by even one item doesn’t get the house. If no restaurant qualifies, the house stays home and keeps its demand. If exactly one qualifies, the house eats there, whatever the price or distance.
In the first two rounds there is no demand yet: the earliest campaigns add demand after Dinnertime of round 2. Skip Dinnertime when no house has demand, but still pay the Waitress and CFO bonuses.
Competition
If several restaurants qualify:
- Item price: each chain’s item price this round.
- Distance: the shortest road distance from the house to each restaurant’s entrance (distance).
- Effective price = item price + distance (each step of distance counts as $1). The lowest wins.
- Ties: the chain with more Waitresses played this round wins; then the one earlier in turn order.
So a house will travel one tile further to save $1 an item, two tiles to save $2.
Getting paid
When a house eats at your restaurant, discard its demand counters and the matching items from your stock. For each item sold, take your item price from the bank, then:
- Garden: double the total if the house has a garden.
- “First … Marketed” milestones: +$5 for each burger, pizza or drink (any drink) you sell, if you have the matching milestone. The garden doesn’t double this.
Distance never changes what you are paid.
Item price
Every item you sell has the same price. Start at $10 and apply every played modifier — they are all mandatory:
| Modifier | Price |
|---|---|
 each Pricing Manager played | −$1 |
 each Discount Manager played  | −$3 |
 Luxuries Manager played  | +$10 |
| First to Lower Prices milestone | −$1, every round |
Employees on the beach change nothing.
End of Dinnertime
After all houses, in this order:
- Waitresses:
$3 for each Waitress played ($5 with the
First Waitress Played milestone), even if you sold nothing. - CFO:
with a CFO played, add 50% of everything you earned
this Dinnertime, Waitress cash included, rounded up.
Claim First to Lower Prices at the start of Dinnertime if a Pricing or Discount Manager is in your structure, and a First to Have $20 / $100 milestone as soon as your cash reaches it.
Breaking the bank
The bank breaks when it reaches $0 during Dinnertime.
The first time:
- Reveal everyone’s bank reserve cards.
- Refill the bank with the total cash shown on them.
- The CEO slot number shown most often on them is every CEO’s slot count for the rest of the game. With 2 or 4, everyone tucks the matching reserve card under their CEO.
- Anyone still owed cash takes the rest, and Dinnertime goes on.
The second time: the bank isn’t refilled. Everyone keeps earning to the end of this Dinnertime, taking cash from the box or writing IOUs — then the game ends (Game End and Scoring).
In an introductory game, the game ends the first time the bank breaks.