while many COVID-19 Restrictions are behind us, says Nova Scotia’s Restaurant Association Now more challenging.
Getting people in the door has been tough for many food establishments, and ever-increasing costs are a hard reality.
Despite the doom and gloom, at least one restaurant is trying to look on the bright side.
“COVID debt is definitely a constant question and definitely keeping you up at night,” says Brendan Doherty, owner of Old Triangle. “I will say right now, the cost of food is by far the biggest concern. They just keep going up.
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Also a possibility is an earlier expected minimum wage increase — rising to $15 an hour on October 1 — and a tax increase in excise taxes for beer, wine and spirits starting April 1.
Richard Alexander, Atlantic Canada vice-president of Restaurant Canada, says the increase amounts to 6.3 per cent. “The biggest increase in 40 years, (it) adds $36,000 in expenses to an average restaurant when the industry can’t bare it.”
“This year, we’re estimating somewhere around that, at least a seven per cent increase in general food costs across the board to restaurants,” says Gordon Stewart, executive director of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia. “They need to reflect that value in their menus.”
Stewart says the post-COVID rebound was strong and consumer confidence returned, but inflationary pressures have put a halt to that. He says now the pandemic is more challenging than the restrictions because there is no support for things like rent, wages, grants or loans – and no short-term solutions to the issues.
Those issues include a lack of well-documented labor. He says that with full staffing, there will be about 44,000 restaurant workers in Nova Scotia. Currently, there are about 27,000.
“We are very few [the number of people] We need to,” Stewart says. “That compression of labor has also created a compression in the amount of days open for sales, which in turn affects how much profit you can make, and how much profit you can make depends on how long you live in business. ,
Meanwhile, there are signs that people are buying less and picking up cheaper menu items.
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Still, Doherty, owner of The Old Triangle, is trying to remain optimistic.
“There’s a lot of bad stuff around, but there’s a lot of good stuff too, which I think we miss out on,” he says.
Recent highlights include the World Junior Hockey Championships in Halifax, the current Dine Around Halifax promotion, the upcoming Burger Week and of course St. Patrick’s Day, he says.
Similarly, Stewart says there’s no education to become a restaurateur, so many owner entrepreneurs are trying to reduce how much they buy in, given shrinking menus and staffing, raising wages and while offering better benefits.
“But that entrepreneurial spirit is very strong,” he says. “It’s amazing when you’re pushed to the wall, how far you can push back sometimes.”
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