Running a restaurant in today’s sour economy is kind of like trying to keep alive a typewriter repair shop, if any still actually exist. The difference, fortunately, is that dining out hasn’t become obsolete. And no matter what little chunk change we have left in our pockets at the end of the week, it never will.

But that may not soothe the frayed nerves of restaurateurs and chefs currently enduring the “silent storm.” Low consumer turnout is afflicting restaurants of every genre. And many established kitchens throughout San Diego are rumored to be on brink of closing.

Staying afloat has meant swallowing the costs of incentive meals designed to attract more customers. Or in many cases, chefs are veering away from specialty purveyors selling meat and produce at exorbitantly high prices, creating a challenge that has restaurants juggling economics with quality.

“About three months ago we started looking at different avenues for buying produce, leaving behind those suppliers that are still trying to make ridiculous profits,” says chef John Robert Kennedy of the Better Half. “I’m now saving almost $14 on a case of tomatoes, buying them instead from Restaurant Depot opposed to Specialty Produce.” That latter supplier, he adds, was also charging $94 for a case of butter, which he has found elsewhere for $40 less.

At Kous Kous, chef-owner Moumen Nouri frets over the price of saffron, which has doubled in the last couple of months along with a 35 percent cost increase for cous cous – key ingredients to his Moroccan menu.

Nouri, too, has become a denizen of Restaurant Depot, saying that he often sees chefs of upscale restaurants shopping there, who in better days, were not. But rather than raising his prices, he has extended his tapas menu “for people who want to dine out for less money,” adding that, “I’m doing the same thing as our customers, which is looking for deals.”

And deals abound.

Kennedy just last week rolled out “distressed economy blue-plate specials,” taking a cue from his grandmother who did the same while running a restaurant during The Great Depression. The offer features three-course dinners for $15, from 5 to 7 p.m., on operating days. And the entrée choices are hardly what most would associate with cheap “blue plate” fare – wild game meatloaf; seafood du jour; pasta with smoked pumpkin and tomato sauce; and more.

In the Uptown/Downtown Community Magazines (direct-mail coupon booklets published five times a year) the number of upscale restaurants providing discounts has clearly increased, according to publisher Catherine Black.

“Our advertisers are offering stronger incentives, and they’re reporting 30 to 50 percent more redemption of their coupons as people become more aware of saving money.”

Staci Wilkens of The Ritual can attest. “Our onion ring sales have gone through the roof, and that’s the least expensive item on our menu. People might get two beers instead of three, or order an appetizer in lieu of an entrée.” In addition, she notes that a growing number of customers are using cash instead of credit, a wise choice for consumers choking over high interest rates and a joy to restaurant owners because they’re spared the processing fees.

Consumers are also afforded breaks on the fast-food front, although sometimes to the disadvantage of franchisees like Ken Shea of Quizno’s, who has been dipping into his saving account to keep his Mission Valley store in operation.

Despite an on-and-off promotion of large sub sandwiches priced at $5 apiece, he insists that “panic is causing consumers to hold on to every penny, which is causing the economy to sputter. More people are brown bagging it – and we have quite a few Quizno’s closing their doors.”

Shea adds that he makes only 50 cents on each $5 sub.

Guarded optimism, however, underlies worry. Wilkens believes that consumers yearn for a sense of community when times are tough, meaning that they still dine out. Kennedy feels that the economy will stabilize if Sen. Barack Obama is elected president, but adds, “I think we’ll still be in this for the next year or two.”

And ironically in just the last four months, more than a dozen new restaurants and eateries opened in metro San Diego, entering into the collective pool of blood, sweat and tears that especially now comes with the territory.