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Id | NEWS YOU CAN EAT Restaurants • Wine • Events
'Where is Everybody?’
Restaurants, fast food chains grapple with worker shortage
By Amy Wenkand Collin Kelley
If you’ve been to a restaurant or fast
food joint lately, you’ve likely noticed “We’re
Hiring” signs. That’s because local eateries are
struggling to find employees to fill positions
after the pandemic shutdown.
Fast food restaurants like Cook Out are
offering $12 an hour, bonuses, raises, and
contributing to health insurance to attract
employees. On a recent Saturday afternoon,
the Krystal on Northside Drive at 14th in
West Midtown had to temporarily shut down
its busy drive-thru window as it waited for
employees to arrive. But it’s not just the fast
food industry that’s facing staffing issues.
Karen Bremer, president and CEO of
the Georgia Restaurant Association, said she
believes restaurants across the state are still
short 50,000 to 70,000 workers.
“Restaurateurs are struggling to find
workers. Many have reduced hours and days
open due to worker shortages,” Bremer said
in a statement. “Some are offering signing
bonuses, guaranteed schedules, and higher
hourly wages.”
She said the worker shortage would
continue for the foreseeable future due to
robust consumer demand.
Robby Kukler, a partner with Atlanta-
based Fifth Group Restaurants, said the labor
shortage is preventing his company from
reopening one of its restaurants. Fifth Group
operates ten restaurants including South City
Kitchen, Alma Cocina, Lure, Ecco, El Taco
and LaTavola, with locations in areas such as
Buckhead, Virginia-Highland and Midtown.
Alma Cocina in downtown Atlanta has
been closed since March 2020. Fifth Group
hoped to reopen in July, but the company has
been unable to hire the management team
needed to open the doors.
Its other restaurants have staggered open
hours, with only two restaurants open seven
days a week. “We are trying to be strategic
about when will we do business,” Kukler said.
“But it also comes down to when can your
staff work.”
He added the company still needs to
hire in excess of 100 people. In fact, its peak
employment before the pandemic (Including
its catering company Bold Catering &
Design) was around 950 workers. Today, it
has about 450 workers.
“It’s a very complicated issue,” Kukler said
of the labor issue, and it’s not just unique to
the restaurant business.
Due to the pandemic, he said, “there
are a lot of people around the world who
are thinking about life. I think people took
opportunities maybe to change careers or try
something on their own or just can take a little
more time off this summer.”
To help attract workers, Fifth Group has
a “generous and aggressive referral program”
where it offers current employees $500 if they
refer a new hourly employee. The company
also offers signing bonuses for new hourly
workers, giving them an additional $1,000
after they work 100 days. Plus, hourly wages
for back-of-house staff, such as line cooks and
dishwashers, now range from $ 15 to $22 per
hour.
“It really isn’t attracting a lot of people,”
Kukler said. “Where is everybody?”
He said he’s unsure when the industry will
recover, as he wonders how cooler weather
this fall and the spread of the COVID delta
variant could affect the state, which has low
vaccination rates.
His message to the public? “Get
vaccinated.”
Mitchell Anderson, who owns MetroFresh
in Midtown, said he’d also been having
trouble finding workers, including a cook.
“I have posted on several platforms,
I’ll get limited interest with even fewer
qualified people,” Anderson said. “‘11 make
appointments for people to come in for an
interview and 90 percent of the time they
don’t even show up. If super frustrating and
ultimately may lead to shorter hours for the
restaurant if I can’t fill the position soon.”
Dunwoody resident and hospitality
veteran David Abes said he’s never seen a
worker shortage like this in his 30-year career.
“That’s the number one topic for my
clients — staffing,” said Abes, owner of Dash
Hospitality, a restaurant consulting business.
Abes is also behind a planned restaurant and
entertainment district in the Dunwoody
Village that’s expected to start construction in
August.
“I think it has to do with attitude and the
perception of restaurant business,” he said,
explaining that with the pandemic, many
people started to examine their quality of
life and the hours they spent working. He’s
finding workers are “hesitant to go back into
the hospitality business.”
In response, restaurant owners are having
to think about how to run their operations
differently. Some are using technology to
counter labor shortages, such as investing in
pay-at-the-table devices and new equipment
to help automate back-of-house operations,
Abes said.
“The good operators have pivoted,” he
said, adding he’s optimistic that early next
year the industry will start to recover as more
people return to work.
A recent survey conducted by job search
website Indeed doesn’t offer any immediate
relief but is hopeful for the fall. The survey
indicated that workers don’t feel a sense of
urgency to get back to work this summer.
However, many unemployed workers said
increased vaccination against COVID-19,
shrinking savings, and the opening of schools
in the fall will be key catalysts for stepping up
their job searches, the survey said.
Georgia recently withdrew from
pandemic programs that allowed unemployed
residents to get extra financial support from
the federal government, so that could also
motivate people to return to work.[E]
NEW RESTAURANT RADAR
Serena Pastificio
is now serving
Italian cuisine with
homemade pasta
at Colony Square
in Midtown.
Find out more at
serena-pastificio.
com.
The owners of II Localino
have reopened under
a new name Amore
eAmoreat467 N.
Highland Ave. in Inman
Park serving up classic
Italian. Seethe menu at
amoreeamore.com.
Ponce City Market favorite
Saint-Germain has opened
a new bakery and cafe at
The Interlock, 1115 Howell
Mill Rd., in West Midtown
serving up French pastries,
grilled sandwiches, quiches,
and soups. Find out more at
facebook.com/saintgermain-
frenchbakery.
40 AUGUST 2021 | DU