Restaurants face tight labor market, competition

A labor shortage because of competition with other industries as well as other restaurants took center stage Tuesday in Denver during the first stop of a fourcity tour by chef Marcus Samuelsson.

A panel of some of Denver’s top restaurateurs and Patricia Calhoun, editor and cofounder of Westword, discussed the challenges of dealing with a booming restaurant scene during a time of low unemployment rates and high costs of living. Samuelsson, wellknown head chef at Red Rooster in Harlem, N.Y., said the scramble to find enough workers is a hot topic in the industry.

The panel discussion at Johnson & Wales University is part of a series sponsored by the food service distributor US Foods. Other events are planned in Detroit; Austin, Texas; and Raleigh, N.C. Samuelsson asked panel members if they are using posts on social media and other new strategies to find employees.

“We’ve tried everything,” said Frank Bonanno, chef, restaurant owner and head of Bonanno Concepts.

The tight labor market means restaurants end up losing line cooks who can make more money in construction or the cannabis industry, Bonanno said. He recalled when applicants might go through a tryout before getting a job offer.

“Now if they show up and they can write their name and have two forms of ID, sometimes we’ll hire them on the spot,” Bonanno said.

Some of Denver’s top restaurateurs said during a panel discussion Tuesday that filling jobs in a tight labor market is one of their big challenges.

Many restaurants are struggling to fill jobs, said Colorado Restaurant Association spokeswoman Carolyn Livingston. A quick search on a job website showed roughly 15,600 open positions in the state’s food industry, she said. While that sounds like a lot, Livingston noted the industry’s total workforce is about 280,000 in the state.

High housing costs for employees and competition from other restaurants are adding to the challenges, said Alex Seidel, owner and chef at Fruition and Mercantile & Provision.

“There have been hundreds of restaurants opening in Denver over the last six years — every year hundreds of restaurants — and there is a lot of competition,” added Seidel, named best chef in the Southwest at the James Beard Foundation Awards in May.

Higher expenses, a higher minimum wage and competition from new restaurants were among the reasons the owners of four longtime Denver restaurants gave earlier this month for their decision to close the doors. Premier Ventures Inc. has closed the Paramount Cafe and will shut Govnr’s Park Tavern, Marlowe’s and Lala’s Wine Bar + Pizzeria by the end of the year.

Panel members at Tuesday’s event pointed out that cities across the country are facing the same issues.