Having to hunt down essential ingredients is just a part of being a restaurant owner now
, has been having trouble making spring rolls and vermicelli bowls, two big pillars of its menu, basically since it opened in February. “We’re experiencing a rice paper and rice vermicelli shortage right now,” says co-founder Cassie Ghaffar, who adds that this has been the case for over two months. And it’s not just rice paper and vermicelli noodles: “We experience this on a lot of food line items,” Ghaffar says.
Rice paper may be one shortage among many at the moment, but it’s an example of the constant curveballs being thrown at small business owners, who are still facing a convergence of COVID-related financial, labor, and ingredient issues. For some restaurant owners across the country, the stocking up of the early pandemic hasn’t ended — it’s extended to a changing list of items, with imported ingredients posing a particular challenge.
Buying ingredients this way isn’t ideal. Since Saigon Hustle’s opening, Ghaffar and business partner Sandy Nguyen saw the need for a porter, a person whose full-time job is to make supply runs from their warehouse to the restaurant; the space is small, so packaging and dry goods need to be replenished from a separate storage area that’s shared with their other restaurants.
For Cheung, buying retail instead of wholesale means an increase in cost by 40 to 50 percent. Since it’s him doing this shopping, there are also “opportunity costs, where I need to take time out of my day to go Easter egg hunt this stuff and then shuttle it back, all within LA traffic,” Cheung says. He considers this work non-negotiable though. “For a Vietnamese restaurant, you can’t not have a spring roll, so you have to — by all means — find the product,” he says.
For these restaurant owners, this is just another part of running a restaurant now. Shortages have changed the day-to-day for Cheung, but he concludes that part of being a business owner is finding solutions to keep things going as best as possible. For Ghaffar, it’s certainly creating considerations for the future. “I don’t think it’s going to get better anytime soon,” she says. “When we talk about expansion, it definitely makes it harder to swallow.
Argentina Últimas Noticias, Argentina Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
EU Unveils Plans For Russian Oil Embargo In Latest Wave Of Sanctions For Invading UkraineI am a London-based reporter for Forbes covering breaking news. Previously, I have worked as a reporter for a specialist legal publication covering big data and as a freelance journalist and policy analyst covering science, tech and health. I have a master’s degree in Biological Natural Sciences and a master’s degree in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge. Follow me on Twitter theroberthart or email me at rhartforbes.com
Leer más »
How the latest ‘Star Trek' spinoff resurrects the Buck Rogers brio of the original'Strange New Worlds,' premiering Thursday on Paramount+, spins the franchise into a series with roots in its original rejected pilot.
Leer más »
Salt Lake’s latest camp abatement on Victory Road leaves people looking for ‘stability’Salt Lake County Health Department cleared out around 50 people experiencing homelessness who were camping near Victory Road.
Leer más »
Latest video footage released of Lauderdale County fugitivesBREAKING NEWS UPDATE: The video shows the patrol car that Vicky White used to transport Casey White on April 29.
Leer más »
Latest Reeves vetoes could again expand governor's powerIf Gov. Tate Reeves’ recent vetoes of 10 projects throughout the state totaling about $27 million stand, the power of Mississippi’s executive branch of government could again be expanded.
Leer más »