Los Angeles and Orange County restaurants are still struggling to find adequate staff, resulting in shortened hours, smaller menus, longer wait times for tables and food, and angry customers.
from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the state had more than 102,500 fewer jobs in the food and beverage sector in February 2022 than it did in February 2020, or a 7% overall drop., currently needs to hire about a dozen people for various positions, including line cooks, hosts, bartenders, dishwashers and prep cooks. Two of his restaurants went from being open seven days a week to just five when he reopened his dining rooms last year.
“I understand, and I don’t begrudge them,” Yoon said. “The restaurant industry became an undependable place to earn an income.” “It used to be if you were a good restaurant with a good reputation and a good chef, you had staff,” Sarmadi said. “We’ve always been willing to train people to have somebody enjoy that level of rigor and detail and want to stay. That’s become a challenge.”
Sarmadi and Esnault paid for job postings on employment sites Craigslist and Indeed but to no avail. They used the restaurant’s social media handles to get the word out. Nothing was working. Pre-pandemic, Sarmadi said four out of 10 scheduled job interviews would be no-shows. During the last two years, that number rose to eight out of 10.
At Poppy & Seed, the Reeds opened the seasonal restaurant with the intent of changing the menu often. Instead, a lack of properly trained staff and high turnover have meant sticking to a menu the kitchen can handle.“We slowed down menu changes because of the learning curve in the kitchen, and servers having to go sell the new items in front of the house stressed them out,” Kwini said.
Michael and Kwini Reed, owners of Poppy & Seed in Anaheim. “It got to the point where I was like, ‘If you just walk through the door, I’m going to hire you,’” Kwini Reed said. One way Batchan is hoping to keep his staff happy is with a 20% service charge on all guest checks. The entirety of that charge goes to the staff.