That's just part of the service industry," she said. "Anybody who is a server knows you will put up with frustrations. She's gotten out of the industry permanently, she said, and is making opal jewelry that she sells primarily on Etsy. She started working as a server in restaurants in Upstate New York when she was 16, moving to Florida in 2012 to work in familiar chains like TGI Friday's and BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse before landing a job in fine dining where she made between $200 and $300 per night. It's about a lack of civility, compassion and patience." Petersburg, Fla., it's not about the pay, it's not about the boss, it's about "how people treat each other. Where have restaurant workers gone and why don't they want to come back? For Danielle Walker, 32, in St. Proof of vaccination and flattening covid infection rates may make diners feel more comfortable dining indoors this winter, but labor challenges could continue. Being severely short-staffed already, Lelcaj says, patios far from the kitchen mean "adding 20 more steps for the server to go there and back for extra ketchup."Īnd with colder weather around the corner, restaurants nationally are looking at reductions in outdoor dining. And while outdoor spaces have been a godsend to restaurants since the beginning of the pandemic, owners incur additional expenses to build and then set up and break down outdoor dining. She had to reduce the number of days she's open because of staffing shortages. She owns three popular upscale restaurants in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Everyone assumes business is good, but we're not there yet," said restaurateur Sava Lelcaj. Owners have to shuffle workers around like chess pieces between curbside service, outdoor dining, the bar and the dining room, sometimes going without hosts, bussers or bartenders. Owners have to abbreviate menus to accommodate fewer cooks, and they have to limit dining room capacity because of fewer servers, according to David Portalatin, food industry adviser at the NPD Group.
Nearly half of the restaurateurs in the NRA survey said they were not yet operating at full capacity, because they aren't adequately staffed. The worker shortage has hit the restaurant industry particularly hard, with fast-food restaurants from McDonald's to Taco Bell limiting service to drive-through and reducing hours because there are fewer restaurant workers. They cite higher food and utility costs and supply-chain problems, but the biggest issue, restaurateurs say, is lack of staff. Restaurant attendance has been inching down in August and September, according to the reservation app Open Table.Įven with this summer's surge in restaurant patronage, more than half of 4,000 restaurant operators surveyed in September by the National Restaurant Association say that business conditions are worse now than three months ago. Meanwhile, overall numbers of restaurants are down by 13 percent in September, compared with the spring of 2020, according to market research firm NPD Group's restaurant census.Īnd the recent surge in covid cases, which is slowly abating, spooked many diners who earlier this summer had embraced going to restaurants in record levels. Restaurant sales were flat in August compared with July, but they were still a lot higher than the same period in 2020, according to Census Bureau data. Need more? You'll also find cooking games built around some of your favorite fictional characters, like Barbie and Frozen's Elsa.Employment overall in the food service sector is down nearly a million jobs from pre-pandemic levels, and restaurants continue to close. You can even throw a wrench in another chef's cooking in some of the more mischievous ones, like Devilish Cooking. Or skip the realistic stuff and brew up some creepy recipes with a few of the Halloween-themed cooking games.
Just print out the recipe! Let out your inner Martha Stewart! Whip up a batch of virtual brownies or go more exotic with recipes like piñata cookies or Swedish meatballs. You'll find lots of time-management games, where it's up to you to run the kitchen of a restaurant and keep customers happy, as well as one-recipe games that will walk you, step by step, through a dish that you can then make at home. Join fan favorite Sarah on one of her many cooking adventures or try out a game from another brand, like Pou. Try out a new recipe without burning the house down in our mega collection of online cooking games.