Utah food and beverage workers are scrambling to solve supply-chain and staffing shortages

Christopher Stephenson used to enjoy the simplicity of working behind the bar.

“I always loved the industry because I could go home at any point and not take the work with me,” said Stephenson, the bar manager and beverage director of Lake Effect, a popular bar and restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City.

Now, he said, “I am on the phone and computer for hours when I get home to make sure I am keeping in contact with [purveyors].”

In the last two years, as the COVID-19 pandemic has continued, staff members in Utah’s food and beverage establishments are burning out. The days are long, supply is short and demands are high.

And as more employees decide to walk away from the industry, those left standing — like Stephenson, who has worked in the industry since he was 16 — are doing all they can to keep their heads above water while trying to remember why they love what they do.

“There’s a whole different strategy involved now, just to stay competitive and to stay open,” said Stephenson, a cocktail connoisseur who has been tending bar for more than 14 years.

Supply-chain issues and staff shortages have Stephenson — and pretty much anyone else in the food and beverage industry — scrambling to creatively troubleshoot anything, from not having the appropriate glassware to posting job positions that people simply aren’t applying to.

Ellie McDonald, manager of the recently opened Shades Pub in downtown Salt Lake City, is experiencing similar challenges. “I’ve had a job listing up for awhile, and I haven’t gotten any bites,” she said.

Fred Boutwell, director of operations at Market Street Grill — which has locations in downtown Salt Lake City, Cottonwood Heights and South Jordan — has been in the industry for 42 years and, for the past two, he has learned to expect the unexpected each day.

“It has changed drastically daily,” Boutwell said. “My general managers are busing tables, I am busing tables. I’ve had an ad for employees for well over a year now, and none of my restaurants are even close to being 75% staffed. …

“I have to continually remind myself that it’s not just our business. It’s affecting everyone on the planet.”

Reports of global supply-chain issues, the trend of people quitting jobs — aka “the Great Resignation” — and navigating COVID-19 and its variants clearly have people exhausted. While most hope for a return to normalcy, or whatever that will look like, some professionals are less convinced that the dining experience will return to what it was in the before times.

“I really don’t think the restaurant industry will ever go back to the exact way it was before,” Stephenson said. “The whole industry has changed. It has been flipped on its head. Everybody is literally taking one step at a time to maneuver this.”

Stephenson said that the way he manages his job has changed drastically. “I’m there constantly during the day to meet with food purveyors and liquor reps,” he said. “There’s way more computer and on-the-phone work than I have ever had to deal with. I liked that job because I didn’t have a desk job. But now I have a desk job — and a restaurant job and a bartending job.”

Dealing with shortages has managers thinking creatively with how they will substitute what they might normally use with something less ideal.

“We’ve been problem-solving everywhere that we can,” McDonald said. “I’m serving beer in inappropriate glassware. When I sell a glass of wine, I put it in a rocks glass, because I cannot get wine glasses to save my life.”

For the brewery, McDonald said, “cans have been the absolute hardest. We usually like to release a beer every week, and there has been such a can shortage and also a shipping shortage. Every tank in our brewery is filled with beers that are ready to go. We just need something to put them in.”

Boutwell said random supplies you wouldn’t normally think twice about are a rare commodity nowadays. “You cannot buy straws. I can’t buy to-go bags. I’ve had to change brands innumerable times.”

It’s not just that the supplies aren’t available. People don’t want to do the jobs to make the products available.

“Utah is landlocked, and I don’t have a lot of fish that are local,” Boutwell said. “All of my fish come from the ocean. Processing plants are coming down because nobody can find employees.”

Lack of availability, of course, drives the cost for products up — often by a lot. Boutwell said that his cost for Alaskan king crab has gone up 150% since last March.

Michael McCarty, vice president of Joe Granato Produce, a Salt Lake City-based produce distributor, understands the challenges of dramatic costs increase.

“Freight rates for product coming in increased probably like 25% in a short time of three months,” McCarty said. “I don’t think I have seen freight rates increase that dramatically in a three-month period in the 20 years that I have been doing this.”

Freight rate and other cost increases stem in part from a shortage of drivers. “There’s nobody driving trucks anymore,” Boutwell said.

Industry professionals have leaned a lot on each other to survive the rollercoaster of challenges that COVID-19 has brought. But it hasn’t been easy.

“A lot of us are frustrated, tired and overworked,” McDonald said.

And then there are the customers, who can make or break their resilience.

“When you have a server, bartender, host or maître d’ that’s taking care of you, it’s by far not their fault that there is a staff shortage or you waited a little longer or that they’re out of lemons,” Stephenson said. “It has nothing to do with mismanagement. A lot of it has to do with the fact that no one can get these things right now.”

McCarty said customers can help by being patient.

“Be kind to people,” McCarty said. “I do see a lot more hostility in people, and it would be nice to see people understand that someone is just trying to do their job.”

Boutwell added that those working in the service industry care about the customers they are serving. So, when patience runs thin, remember that.

“We’re in an industry that cares about people. I care about the men and women that I work with, and the men and women that I serve. It’s part of why we do this,” Boutwell said. “Those of us that have chosen to stay in it through this laugh it off, cry it off, hug each other. We all realize that the only way we are going to survive and get through it is with one another.”