After a summer of fielding reservation requests, Labor Day”™s approach had area restaurateurs nervously eyeing ringing telephones, wondering if it was a cancellation.
After a relatively strong summer, the market collapse of early August served a stiff reminder of the fickle nature of diners weighing their net worth against a Friday night out.
Connecticut restaurants appear to be riding out myriad setbacks as consumers, businesses and policymakers produce a recipe for a decidedly lukewarm recovery. Those challenges include new hikes to Connecticut”™s income tax rate with “catch-up” schedules for the remainder of this year, an $8.25 minimum wage that ranks among the highest in the nation, and perhaps most onerous ”“ at least in rhetoric ”“ a new law that requires venues with at least 50 employees to pay them regular wages when they are out sick.
Speaking last month at an economic forum in Torrington, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he attempted to work with Connecticut restaurants on the bill, but was rebuffed.
“They took the position that they were either going to defeat it or live with the consequences,” Malloy said.
At the forum, a Torrington restaurant entrepreneur named Bob DeZinno said he wished with hindsight he had taken the paid sick-leave bill more into account in starting up the Backstage Restaurant, which is subject to the law”™s provisions.
“The paid sick-leave bill was poorly conceived (and) it was poorly debated,” DeZinno said. “Quite frankly, we made 61 good jobs in downtown Torrington, and we”™re almost at the point where we regret not having made 49.”
If restaurateurs appear daunted by the new paid sick-leave bill, for the time they are plowing on through the economic morass. Mario Batali pressed ahead with his new Tarry Lodge Enoteca Pizzeria in Westport, while the owners of Westport”™s Gray Goose restaurant are planning a new establishment on Church Lane. Southport”™s new Delamar Hotel opened Artisan with a farm-to-table culinary theme. And in Norwalk, Bradford”™s Grill & Tavern opened on North Main Street in space previously occupied by Brasserie Molliere Rotisserie.
Overall employment in the leisure and hospitality sector, meanwhile, increased by an estimated 900 jobs between May and June, according to the Connecticut Department of Labor, and at 135,000 jobs were only just short of the numbers in June 2007 as the last boom cycle reached its peak. At deadline, the DOL had yet to release its job estimates for August.
The DOL data was bolstered by National Restaurant Association statistics that consumers have been dining out more this summer than the two previous. And the New York State Restaurant Association said its own members have reported a positive summer at the till.
A current-performance index maintained by the National Restaurant Association hit its highest level in four years in June, according to Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association. He said that is being reflected in capital spending, with nearly half of restaurant owners planning to invest in their business over the next six months.
The question becomes how eateries will fare this autumn, given the new market tremors that have many potential diners slamming shut their wallets and pocketbooks ”“ and what other costs they may have to absorb even as revenue potentially shrinks.
“In terms of challenges for restaurant operators, wholesale food prices ”¦ is a continuing issue,” Riehle said. “For example, flour, coffee, meats and cheese were up by double-digit rates (from 2010).”
