Help not just wanted, but needed, to meet customer demand at Wilmington-area restaurants

If you think just about every restaurant in the greater Wilmington area is looking for more employees, you're right. Most restaurant owners say they have a perpetual 'now hiring' mentality and say others in the business do, too.

Earlier this year, for example, Josh Petty of Cast Iron Kitchen in the Porters Neck area, came back from a family vacation to learn that he only had one member of his kitchen staff remaining. As a result, he had to focus more time and energy into hiring cooks. He also simplified his menu to one that he was able to delivery with a smaller staff.

Now with a close-to-full staff and menu, and newly expanded patio, he's still looking.

“I’d still like to hire one or two more,” he said. “Especially — and this is something everyone is looking for, and a necessity — a dishwasher."

As it is, he said that he is often washing dishes and that he's asked some of his front-of-the-house staff to help, too.

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Billy Mellon, of manna in downtown Wilmington, is also always looking for more good people and has had to change some plans because there haven't been enough staff to expand.

He recently hired a new chef from Vermont. Although it's something he'd do for any new person joining his team, he made sure to make sure that the new employee had adequate housing and made a few calls on behalf of his wife, a hairstylist looking for a local job.

"If you get the right person, you do want to make sure they can stay," he said.

Meanwhile, Jeff Duckworth, owner of PinPoint and the newly opened Riverview Restaurant in Kure Beach. is spending a lot of time cooking at the new eatery until they hire more cooks and chefs, and can expand their menu and service hours.

"It's crazy, restaurants are busier than ever, it seems, and we are all having this problem," he said.

Consumer demand has been growing steadily since 2021 but restaurant industry job growth hasn't kept pace, according to the National Restaurant Industry. The first quarter of 2022 was the smallest since 2020. According to a USA Today report, the hospitality industry has regained 6.8 million lost jobs, but it’s still 8.5% below its February 2020 level.

Smaller margins, paradigm shifts

It is an industry where profit margins can be notoriously slim. Now, though, they are getting smaller. Petty said his payroll is larger because staff retention is a priority.

He's also bought new employee staff shirts and hats, only to have them quit in the first week. Now, he won't provide them until they've been there two weeks.

And even though customer demand is high at restaurants, recent reports show that they aren't tipping as much. Both Square and CreditCards.com say the median tip percentage is down and some diners are tipping less than they did before the pandemic.

"This is just another thing we have to think about," Petty said, in addition to things like the higher cost of everything from meat to to-go containers. "I just wish more customers were aware of what's happening."

What's to come?

But, he said, he does feel like he's meeting the summer with a dependable staff. That includes a chef who can take over the kitchen on a day-to-day basis so Petty can handle some of those projects and necessities that he hasn't had time to when they've been understaffed.

"What I'm really worried about is the fall and winter," he said. "I think people are traveling now because they haven't been able to. But if gas prices remain high, and prices in general, I do worry about the slower season."

Duckworth said he, too, is uncertain. He would like to keep Riverview open year-round but knows he will lose a number of his workers after the summer.

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While many of these stressors the restaurant industry is facing aren't unique to Wilmington, this area is booming -- and a slate of new restaurants is scheduled to open in the coming months.

Several of them are what Mellon would consider comparable to manna, those places with a farm-to-table, New American philosophy.

"There is poaching that happens every time a restaurant like that opens," Mellon said. "And I think people like taking people from manna."

"This area is growing, but the people who are moving here are not necessarily coming here to work in restaurants," he said. "You have to wonder who is going to work at all of these new places."

Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington area restaurants continue to feel worker shortage