The message is ubiquitous. Signs saying “Hiring for all positions” are posted seemingly everywhere at Cape Fear-area eating and drinking establishments. Newly opened Lumina Station restaurant Blueberry’s Grill took its message to a billboard along Market Street.
Facing staff shortages, some restaurants are limiting hours and menus; others adjust to fewer employees by leaving tables empty as hungry customers wait.
And despite the challenges, still others are establishing new locations.
“Demand for eating out and leisure travel has returned as families and friends continue to gather and make reservations at record pace in many places,” stated N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association officials in the Summer 2022 issue of At Your Service, the organization’s quarterly publication.
Paired with a bumper business in leisure dining is a continued downturn in lucrative business travel, meetings and conventions, which NCRLA officials believe might not return for years.
“In response, the hospitality industry continues to adjust,” stated the editorial by NCRLA President and CEO Lynn Minges and Board Chairwoman Amber Moshakos. “Restaurants and hotels are using cloud computing and data to manage workflow and supply chain issues. There are little pink robots delivering coffee in Charlotte, and ghost kitchens are popping up around the state to respond to the dramatic increase in delivery orders and delivery options.
“While technology can play a part of operating more efficiently, we are still facing workforce shortages and know that we must do more to attract and retain workers,” the officials wrote.
The Sideboard board game cafe owner Heath Newton is taking a “slow and steady” approach to reopening his themed eatery after he was forced to close it for two years during the pandemic.
“We reopened in June. I wanted to reopen real slowly because I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like,” he said, citing concerns about both customer volume and staffing availability. “We have a tighter menu and a smaller staff: We were at 12 people before and we’re at five now.”
Pre-COVID, lunch traffic was slow at The Sideboard, so Newton decided to forego lunch hours when he reopened. Recently, he expanded Friday hours to include lunch, but he’s still closing early on Sundays.
“There’s no food after 4 on Sundays, but people can still hang out after that,” he said.
And hanging out is the name of the game at The Sideboard at 4107 Oleander Drive, the sister business of Cape Fear Games next door. The eatery attracts people who enjoy playing card games and board games, which are available to accompany Sideboard’s food offerings. It was the continuing demand for hands-on games during the pandemic that kept revenue flowing into that sister business and allowed Newton to reopen Sideboard this summer.
Drift Coffee + Kitchen managed to survive the pandemic downturn, and this year has opened two new locations: one in the former Causeway Cafe space in Wrightsville Beach and most recently, on North Front Street in downtown Wilmington. Co-owner Michael Powell rejects the word “success” to describe the local chain’s journey through the pandemic, but says things are manageable.
“We’ve had some team members stay on board with us from this period last year,” he said in August. “This period last year to this year has probably been the toughest: We became so busy and didn’t have the structure in place to raise [staffers’] compensation. We’ve opened two stores in the past four months, roughly. Some of those team members came from existing stores and had a leg up; they showed us they had real value. At the Wrightsville Beach cafe there was significant hiring and challenges. Downtown, we have a [smaller] team of eight or nine people because of the construction [along North Fourth Street].”
Drift’s Wrightsville Beach cafe, which has a bigger menu than do the other locations, is still experiencing some problems on the food preparation side but is having no trouble hiring and retaining servers, Powell said.
“Front of the house seems to be attractive because of what they get to serve and because they get to engage with our guests and be part of a local business that they are proud of,” he continued. “The more productive they can be, the higher their tips and overall compensation. Back of the house, we are paying more than we were 18 months ago. We have to figure out how to make that work financially, and we have to understand how to serve our guests well, which is super important for sustainability.”
Another Wilmington restaurant, Indochine, has navigated expansion during the unsettled post-pandemic times as well. Owner Solange “Niki” Thompson and her operations manager Kathy Long have launched two Indochine Express locations and Café Chinois in the past two years and are in the process of rolling out another Indochine Express on Oleander Drive.
“This has been a very challenging time; we as an industry have had challenges,” Long said. “We at Indochine have been very fortunate, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not having conversations every day about staffing in this or that restaurant. I have great respect for restaurateurs who work so hard.
“Niki has respect for everybody who walks in the door and is so grateful. We are not taking anything for granted: we know it’s the team that’s getting us where we need to be. They bring to the table a multitude of experiences and it really helps us.”
Long thinks Thompson’s attitude has helped create a sense of loyalty and responsibility among the staff.
“I think their actions speak for that: Every day they are helping us cover shifts if we are running short, helping us get restaurants open on a daily basis,” Long said.
Those staff members are also among Indochine’s best recruiters, Long added.
“I think our secret is Niki herself,” she said. “She has built an amazing reputation through the years and has a network of friends, former employees and current employees who are recommending to individuals that they should come and apply.”
At a time when product supply chains can be uncertain and food prices have risen dramatically, restaurant owners are also balancing the need to compensate staffers fairly and provide incentives to keep them.
“Our pay is good,” said Newton of The Sideboard. “I know there are places paying more but the environment here helps, because our staff members can talk [with customers] about nerdy stuff. We haven’t lost anyone yet.”
Despite Newton’s efforts to make compensation adequate and fair, it’s tricky at the games cafe because tables at the 65-seat eatery don’t turn as quickly as in traditional restaurants, so tips may be fewer. But, Newton added, customers playing games next door can also order food from the cafe.
“We have a huge customer base next door, especially during tournaments,” he said.
Drift’s recipe for staff retention is a combination of benefits and clear expectations, said Powell.
First, the perks: “Our full-time staff get one week of paid time off, and we offer a 401(k) for every staffer over 21,” he said, adding that Drift wants to give employees opportunities to grow within the organization.
“We have performance reviews at [the first] six months, 12 months and 18 months,” he said. “There’s the opportunity for a raise based on their performance. After that, it’s every year. There’s a team assessment for each person once per quarter; we have rubrics so the manager and the employee have resources for that assessment. You can see how good a manager is by how long their team members stick around, and we really have seen people stick around at our existing stores.”
