SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) – The month of October was a difficult one for restaurants throughout Syracuse. Nine restaurants announced that they were shutting their doors for good during the month and have made citizens and restaurants owners alike nervous about the future of restaurants in the Syracuse area.
Bud Loura is a restaurant business consultant at Restaurant QB and says he fully expects the situation to get worse before it gets better when it comes to restaurants being able to stay in business. According to Loura, restaurants are just not something that many people want to be putting their money into right now along with a variety of other reasons that are leading to the closings of these restaurants.
“Less people work in the restaurant field now, wages have to be higher, supply chain is tough, food costs are high, and it’s just not a business you want to put your money into,” says Loura.
Loura claims that one of the main reasons for these closures are that operating costs have gotten so high that most restaurant owners make a profit of just five cents to every dollar they take in. With these increased costs and the lack of profits, many restaurants in Syracuse have found themselves struggling to stay afloat.
The Distillery is one of the restaurants that faced these struggles and is now nothing more than an empty building. The restaurant closed on October 17, claiming the closure was due to staffing and supply chain issues along with the difficult business climate it had been facing. The cafe attached to Mello Vello Bike Shop, Peachtree Sandwich Company, Kirby’s Grill, and five other restaurants have fallen victim to these issues and saw October as their last month in business.
While it’s true that many restaurants are feeling the same strain Loura talked about, not all are succumbing to it. The Brasserie in Camillus has done everything to stay open and say they owe their success to the culture they’ve created at the restaurant.
“Happy employees is happy guests,” claims owner Michele Roesch. “If you come into a restaurant and your server does not seem happy and does not seem like they wanna be there, it’s gonna be a poor experience for you. So we kind of put our employees happiness and their safety first.”
According to Loura and Roesch, finding a way to keep workers remaining in the industry is essential. If restaurants don’t create a culture that lifts up their employees they end up going out of business. Finding and keeping workers is an essential part of owning a restaurant, and by trying to ensure their happiness and well being, restaurants like The Brasserie seem to find themselves in a good spot when it comes to staying open in the future.