Local restaurants struggling amid rising food prices and lack of workers

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- As COVID-19 restrictions loosen, customers are flooding back to local restaurants, but many are having a hard time keeping up.

The Exchange in downtown Colorado Springs is a prime example. They're seeing rising food costs from their suppliers and they're struggling to keep enough people staffed to actually make their food. It's forcing an uncertain future for the business that's called downtown home for nearly a decade.

"It scares me. It scares me. You know, we were joking the other day, maybe it's time to sell. It's not that much of a joke anymore," said Andy Schlesinger, a co-owner of The Exchange.

He said the cost of bacon doubled seemingly overnight in the last couple of weeks, while the cost of chicken wings more than tripled over the last month. Suppliers maintain that it's a temporary price increase, driven by pandemic-related supply chain issues. Still, it's forcing their business to consider changing the menu to include food they can afford.

That's not their only hurdle.

They're also facing a shortage of qualified workers. Half of their kitchen staff quit over the weekend for various reasons, things like family emergencies, moving to a new place, or a concern with the lift mask mandate. It's forced them to reduce operating hours and cancel catering reservations -- they simply don't have the staff to make the food.

He said they're paying kitchen staff as much as possible, but with unemployment incentives and corporations paying big money to other cooks, it's not enough.

"Nobody's gonna pay 10 or 12 bucks for a cup of coffee so that I can pay my guys, you know, $22 or $25 an hour -- and they're worth that, but there's you can only do as much as you can do."

Schlesinger said they're actively looking for back-of-house staff. If you have kitchen experience and are interested in applying, click here.

Unless things get easier, Schlesinger and his partner are ready to sell the business.