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CAFE
[REVIEW]
Out of Work St. Louis’ bar and restaurant industry is facing a staffing crisis Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
A
bbey Tampow thought she was finally about to catch a break. or months, she and the rest of her skeleton crew at the Town Country mainstay the Country Club Bar and rill had been working nonstop, struggling to manage an increase in business while painfully shortstaffed. he’d been desperate to hire someone — anyone — to take the burden off her and her coworkers, who were working si ty hours per week, and she thought she’d finally found that person. The applicant seemed enthusiastic about the opportunity and made it through three different interviews before accepting an offer to come on board. Tampow had training for the newcomer all set up, put her on the schedule and was ready to welcome her to the team one weekday lunch a few weeks back. The woman never showed up. “ ne e tra hand would have meant relief for everyone,” Tampow says. “It might be ust one person, but that’s crucial when we are working . It would have meant someone could go to a doctor appointment or do errands they have been putting off because they can’t catch their breath. e always go through this point in the year where we worry about hiring enough people, and it always works out, but this is different. I’ve never seen anything like this, where the lack of help has affected the entire staff. ight now, we’re ust all trying to get through.” The staffing problems Tampow describes are not unique to the Country Club. Throughout the t. Louis area food and beverage industry and beyond, restaurants and bars are struggling to find help. eaching the level of what many are referring to as a crisis,
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
“This business doesn’t provide health care, works you to the bone and is fickle. Why would you stay in that?” says Gin Room owner Natasha Bahrami. | MABEL SUEN the inability to find employees is piling grief upon an industry that has already seen more than its fair share of C I - -induced misery, and it is impacting restaurants’ and bars’ ability to recover from the financial devastation of the past year. ithout anyone to serve an increasingly vaccinated dining public eager to return to eating out as usual, businesses have been forced to turn away customers, cut hours and rethink the very nature of how they serve people. “ eople who haven’t dined out for the past year are coming out now and e pecting things to be the same as they were, but this is a changed industry,” says Natasha Bahrami, owner of the in oom and Caf Natasha’s. “ eople say it’s going to be the oaring Twenties with everyone wanting to come out and en oy themselves, but they’re going to have to be patient because people ust aren’t coming back.” To Bahrami, who runs the outh rand bar and restaurant with her mother, amishe, and husband, ichael ricker, the inability to hire staff is something entirely new. In its years in business,
APRIL 21-27, 2021
riverfronttimes.com
Caf Natasha’s has prided itself on its family work environment with little turnover, retaining its employees, sometimes for decades. Now, however, she is struggling to find people to work, as longtime employees leave the hospitality business for industries perceived as more stable. “ any have left the industry — and rightly so,” Bahrami says. “This business doesn’t provide health care, works you to the bone and is fickle. hy would you stay in that? This has called into question the entire stability of the industry.” Bahrami’s sentiment about the systemic issues in the food and beverage business echo those of other restaurateurs, chefs and hospitality workers who see this phenomenon as a long time coming. or decades in the nited tates, the restaurant industry has been plagued by a host of issues that disincentivi e anyone but the true believers from making a career out of hospitality. Low wages, long hours that include weekends and holidays, a culture hostile to work-life balance, lack of health care or paid time off have been the features of restaurant life. As
with many things, the pandemic did not create these issues it e posed the weaknesses. Though recent years have seen a push toward a more professionali ed industry with a better work-life balance, the change has not been broad enough. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the back of the house. If servers and bartenders are currently difficult to come by, finding kitchen help is ne t to impossible. As oyale and Tick Tock Tavern owner teven it patrick- mith e plains, the current crisis shines a light on the pay disparity between the front-facing staff, who make tips, and those in the back of the house, who earn solely an hourly wage. “ bviously, the back of the house needs to get compensated better,” it patrick- mith says. “That’s been the dirty little secret of the business and has bummed me out on so many levels over the years. I’ve been doing my best to address it and have been doing research, but there is no easy solution. hether it’s a tip share, better compensation, a true minimum wage or better benefits package, we should be compensating our people as best as pos-
