‘We had to do something’: Local restaurants forced to adapt to rising food costs

CHARLOTTE — Business owners in Charlotte said they have seen food costs increase dramatically than they had before the pandemic.

Family-owned Pasta & Provisions announced an increase in the price of some of the restaurant’s menu items.

[ALSO READ: Business owners struggle with supply chain shortage]

“It just continued and continued, and now it hit a breaking point,” said Dylan George, general manager. “We had to do something.”

Some items are also being removed from the menu due to food costs that jumped up nearly 50%. Supplies have also risen in cost.

“For instance, the rubber gloves that we use to handle food, to safely handle food, pre-pandemic, we were paying about $40 for a case, which is 12 packs of 100,” George said. “Now we are currently paying $160, and that’s for an item that we’re throwing in the trash once it’s been used.”

Pasta & Provisions is not alone.

The latest data from the Consumer Price Index lists household food prices are up 4.6% from the year before. Some items, such as meat, poultry, fish and eggs, increased by an average of 10.5%.

“We tried as long as we could not to increase prices, but at some point, it’s like you have no choice,” said Jay Davis, co-owner at LuLu’s Maryland Style Chicken & Seafood. “Things are constantly going up because everyone’s talking about ships not coming in. They don’t have truck drivers. If you can go into Walmart or Food Lion or Publix, or whatever, and you see the price increase, imagine if you had to buy that same product in bulk to serve 200 or 300 people a day.”

Davis said that he’s been saving invoices dating back to when he and his wife opened the restaurant.

“When we first started, we were getting crab meat for about $130 a case,” he said. “I bought crab meat Friday at $630, and that’s not an over-exaggeration. One case. It’s the same pandemic for all of us. The only difference is we are business owners, and so we have to make adjustments that most people don’t see walking in a door looking at the menu.”

George and Davis said the costs change daily, and they do not know when it will end.

(Watch the video below: Business owners struggle with supply chain shortage)

Business owners struggle with supply chain shortage

©2021 Cox Media Group