Restaurants across Memphis are operating shorter hours than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason isn't lack of business; it's lack of employees.
Since the pandemic began, Jason and Rebecca Severs have opened their Midtown restaurant Bari only five days a week. Before COVID-19, the restaurant was open seven days.
In March, Rebecca Severs posed a question in a Facebook post: “Where did all of the restaurant workers go?”
At the time, she was far from the only Memphis restaurant owner asking that question. “It seems like every restaurant in the city is looking for employees," Rebecca Severs posted.
Four months later, restaurants throughout Memphis are still understaffed.
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Bari has been temporarily closed since May as work continues on its new location, and Jason Severs predicted he will be in the same staffing predicament when he reopens later this summer.
"I could easily employ five more people right now," he said. "The hard thing is people are going to want us to be open every day and to stay open later once we reopen, and we won't be able to do that."
Erling Jensen: The Restaurant is the latest restaurant to shorten its hours because of staffing concerns. Starting next week, the award-winning fine dining restaurant will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. It has been open seven days a week for more than two decades.
Jensen said he is in desperate need of kitchen staff. His restaurant is busier than ever, and he doesn't have the cooks he needs.
"I am hoping this is short term, and we can be back open seven days a week soon," he said, adding he is working hard to get the positions filled as soon as possible.
He said that before the pandemic, open positions in his kitchen were quickly filled, most by word of mouth referrals.
Greater Memphis' hospitality sector stands about 9,000 workers below its pre-pandemic peak of 69,300 employees in summer 2019. In April, the industry employed nearly 60,000 workers (up from 42,000 a year earlier amid the pandemic-related business closings), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports show.
'We just don't have the staff'
The Bar-B-Q Shop has operated on temporary shorter hours since June.
The restaurant used to be open six days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and was closed only on Sunday. Now The Bar-B-Q Shop is also closed on Monday, closes at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and 8:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
"We just don’t have the staff, and we’ve had to cut hours," said Eric Vernon, The Bar-B-Q Shop owner. "We don’t want to completely burn the staff we do have left. They have taken on a lot of hours in the last few months, and we had to cut back because it was becoming too much for the amount of employees we have left."
Read full article at Help (still) wanted: Memphis restaurants cut hours because lack of workers.