The Wall Street Journal today takes note of how expensive it is to staff a restaurant in San Francisco. Certainly having a living wage and health care benefits are important for servers and bussers alike, but according to restaurant consultants Full Plate Consulting, our almost-$10 minimum wage and local ordinances regarding benefits mean that restaurants here spend three times as much per employee as they do in New York or Chicago. Good news for waiters, bad (and probably old) news for chef-owners. In related news, the Chron talks today with the owners of Kasa Indian Eatery about how the credit crunch has affected their new business, and Michael Bauer checks in on the survival rate of his top 10s over the years, which turns out to be an encouraging 62%.