Columbia restaurants struggle with low staff, high turnover, creating long waits for customers

The three line cooks who worked the closing shift at Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint quit within 10 days of each other this month, just weeks before one of the area’s busiest days of the year — the St. Pat’s in Five Points festival.

General Manager Maz Cotran II and his assistant kitchen manager were the only employees who could close the popular burger restaurant each night.

After they worked more than 12 hours straight during the festival on March 18 and helped bring in 30% more revenue than Jack Brown’s makes in a typical Saturday, some good news is coming Cotran’s way: Four new staff members have been hired and will be starting soon.

High staff turnover like this was always common in the food and beverage industry, but it has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The staffing problem is a big contributor to some of the long wait times you might be experiencing when you eat out in the Midlands these days, local restaurant leaders say.

“We had an already understaffed situation, COVID hit and there were massive layoffs and massive quitting, and then our demand started going up,” said Robin DiPietro, the director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. “We just don’t have the employees. Guests are really having to sacrifice for this.”

But there are at least some positive indications that restaurants might be moving out of a rough stretch when it comes to labor.

National data from the Bureau of Labor statistics backs that up. Even though restaurants continued to experience more worker turnover than other industries, January jobs data showed improvement over the same month last year.

Still, that means there isn’t always enough staff to serve customers, according to Bobby Williams, the CEO of Lizard’s Thicket restaurant chain and former chairman of the state Restaurant and Lodging Association.

But the industry is “getting a better footing” now as people readjust to life since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Williams said.

Trends across South Carolina industries support this theory. Overall unemployment has decreased, and about 10,000 more South Carolinians were employed this January compared to January 2022, according to recent data from the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce.

“We’re still advertising for employees every day of the week and doing everything we can to draw some quality employees,” Williams said. “But I feel like (the labor shortage) has eased off a little.”

The Lizard’s Thicket chain lost about 200 employees for various reasons during the pandemic and is just now bouncing back to its pre-pandemic levels. Two locations had to permanently close because of the labor shortage.

“It was just such a drain on our employees,” Williams said.

Williams is now preparing to open another location of the Lizard’s Thicket. But the first business consideration he had to make to determine its location was where there would be enough staffing potential.

Managers at bars and restaurants across Columbia said the pandemic caused employees to reevaluate what they want.

“Being in this industry, you sacrifice weekends, you sacrifice holidays, you sacrifice birthdays, you sacrifice time with loved ones,” Cotran said. “People are realizing their time is really precious. ... Unless you are really committed and invested into this crazy life that we live in food and bev, then ultimately you have a choice to make, which is this or that. And a lot of people choose that.”

Many millennials seemed to age out of the industry, deciding they wanted a job with better hours so they could start a family, according to Williams. That left openings that younger employees are filling.

“(Gen Z is) coming into the workplace saying, ‘I’m not going to work 100 hour weeks. I’m not going to work nights and weekends every week.’ And so we’re really having to change our model,” DiPietro said.

Saluda’s, a fine-dining restaurant in Five Points, has fared better than most in terms of having enough staff, according to owner Steve Cook.

“We could hire 50 people tomorrow for the front of the house,” Cook said. “The back of the house is a little bit different. We have a great staff, but you can always use a couple more people.”

But he’s noticed a shift in work ethic and career goals throughout the nearly two decades Saluda’s has been open. While almost all of his kitchen staff dreamed of opening their own restaurant one day, that’s not the case anymore, Cook said.

“I don’t know if that’s a product of everything shutting down and people thinking things aren’t possible for them,” Cook said. “You always want to hire people who you could see being the CEO one day. And that’s what I hope we get back to.”

Viewing jobs at Columbia’s restaurants and bars as transient roles also might be contributing to the high turnover the industry is seeing, according to Thomas Dugas, the general manager of The Cotton Gin bar in Five Points.

“You bring some people in, they work for you for a couple of years, and then they graduate,” Dugas said. “You’re turning over a lot of people. That’s just part of the industry.”

And the identity of these roles has evolved as the character of Five Points has changed with a crackdown on underage drinking in recent years, according to Mike Lartman, a manager at Breaker’s Bar and Grill and Breaker’s Live.

“In the past couple of years, there’s been less and less traffic through Five Points during the week, so a lot of people don’t want to work,” Lartman said.

But less traffic during weekdays doesn’t mean that Breaker’s has lost significant profit — the bar is still packed each Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, and “the older crowd knows how to tip,” Lartman said.

High turnover isn’t the only difficulty the food and beverage industry is dealing with. Inflation has increased the cost of doing business by 25% to 40%, Williams estimates.

Nationwide, inflation is up 6% compared to last year, according to February Consumer Price Index data.

“It’s crazy what we’re paying for things, and it’s crazy what we’re charging. I’m embarrassed. We’re barely making a profit, and we’re charging more than ever,” Williams said.

Even though prices have increased, customers are still showing up to Columbia’s bars and restaurants.

“Business is very good in Columbia,” Williams said. “We have other things to complain about — pricing, food cost and labor shortages — but I don’t think anybody has a lack of business.”

Slowing down and learning to enjoy the experience of eating out, even if it does take a bit longer than it did before the pandemic, is key, according to DiPietro.

“I think we, as customers, need to reflect on the past three years,” DiPietro said. “I’m grateful just to be going out, and I’m OK that I have a little bit longer of a wait time, because I’m there for the experience.”