Sterling Terrain V02 - Flipbook - Page 22
20 | Sterling College
Restaurant
Sustainability
in the COVID Era
Written By
Leigh Vincola ‘00
When the Farm to Table movement really gained momentum in the early 2000s
I was enchanted. What better way to
honor the land, the people who steward it and the explosive creativity that
was coming out of the growing number
of chef driven restaurants at the time.
It all made sense; celebrate the ingredients and bring them to the people by
way of a beautiful presentation with top
notch service. I sought out restaurants
that subscribed to this philosophy and,
for a large part, still do. But what I have
learned over the last twenty-some years
circulating the periphery of the restaurant industry, and particularly the last
seven years inside its guts, is that the
foundation of a restaurant’s integrity
goes far beyond its commitment to local
sourcing. Yes, relationships to farms and
seasonal menus are vitally important
to a functional local food system. Yes,
things like green design elements and a
kitchen’s zero waste goals play a role as
well. All of this is true but I firmly believe
the sustainability of a restaurant really,
truly comes down to the health and happiness of the humans inside the building
that make it hum every night. Without
them, a locally raised heritage breed
chicken on a bed of foraged greens actually means nothing.
It is no secret that the cracks in the
restaurant industry were showing before the pandemic. Rising and downright
unaffordable rents were commonplace
in major cities. Long, soul crushing shifts
were the norm while mental health and
addiction issues among service industry workers ran rampant. A shortage of
line cooks was already becoming apparent. Some progressive restaurants were
doing their best to retain employees by
offering health insurance, tip pooling
for the kitchen staff, and other benefits
that went against the hard driving, often abusive culture that seeped into the
core of even the most celebrated farm
to table restaurants. But for the most
part, margins were thin, hours were long,
and the restaurant industry as we knew
it continued on without a way off the
spinning wheel it created.
But then the pandemic came and, I believe, illuminated what will ultimately be
the next chapter in what it means to be
a sustainable restaurant.
We all watched, some of us with more
anxiety than others, as service industry workers left the industry in droves
during and after the pandemic. Fed up
by the poor wages, poor treatment, excruciating hours, and being treated like
servants – with the added stress of
wearing the hats of health care provider
and law enforcement – many restaurant
workers walked out the door and didn’t
look back. This was most apparent when
the dining public were ready to book a
plexiglassed table, get back out to their
favorite establishments and dig in. One
problem. There were not quite enough
bodies to cook their food or serve their
drinks the way they were used to. “Short
staffed” became the mantra and the
main reason, in addition to rising food
costs, why so many restaurants shut
their doors or limited their hours. If your
favorite restaurant’s menu has shrunk
to something unfamiliar, this is why.
I have been saying for a while that the
industry as a whole is in the middle of a
needed course correction, now accelerated by a global pandemic. No one really knows the winding path this correction is following or how long it is going
to take until we get to a place of better
balance. It is hard to see the big picture
when we still have rent to pay and must
respond to the demands of daily service,
but we feel the shifts in our profit and
loss statements and it is clear that a big
part of the shift is human focused. At my
restaurant, labor costs have increased
by almost 20% since pre-pandemic and
we are doing five less services than we
were in early March 2020. Meaning we
are paying out more money for fewer
hours of work. This is what it took to get
back to a place of operation. That number is starting to come back down a little,
but we will never hit the labor percentage we were at before COVID. We will
probably never be open for lunch again.
With workers demanding more pay and
better hours, the industry standard is
changing and every restaurant that
is open today is part of that evolution.
While it may hurt in this moment, we
hope the long term shift will have a positive impact on our staying power.
One clear silver lining of the last few
years is that our ownership and management teams learned how to better make
decisions collaboratively. With people’s
safety at stake there was no other way.
We learned to listen and take baby steps
towards what we thought was the right
direction. Decisions were not always
best for the bottom line but they were
best for us at the time. We retained our
entire management team and a lot of our
key staff through the worst of it and today we are pretty close to thriving.
Recently I took a poll of my Instagram
friends. I asked what, beyond food, is
most important to them about their favorite restaurant? The answers rolled
in and made me realize that despite the
unraveling of the industry as we have
known it, despite the still very present
staff shortages, that there is still a disconnect between the public and how
restaurants really function on the inside.
Every one of my friends that have a service industry background answered “the
staff ” and “the community.” Those that
do not have that experience, answered
things like “decor” and “atmosphere.” So
it is clear to me that we have work to
do until the public understands what a
successful, sustainable restaurant really
looks like.