Restaurants that have survived two years of the pandemic are now facing rising prices and labor costs, with inflation expected to rise by 4% this year in the food industry alone.

“We have continued to see price escalation essentially across the board,” said Will Seppi, president and CEO of Costeaux French Bakery in Healdsburg. Seppi also operates Costeaux on the Go at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, two vending machines inside the airport terminal and a commercial baking plant nearby. “From packaging supplies and materials to food items, we continue to work at adjusting the business to accommodate for those price increases.”

To date, Costeaux has absorbed the majority of all cost increases, but is now looking at pricing changes, including raising menu prices between 3% and 10%, depending on the product, Seppi said.

Inflationary costs often get passed to the consumer, and it’s no different for Costeaux, according to Seppi.

“From our standpoint, we certainly don’t want to erode our quality, so we’re not willing to trade down on raw materials,” he said. “We need to continue to preserve what we’re known for and our commitment to the type of foods that all of our guests have come to expect from us.”

In general, inflation is at its highest level in 40 years. According to the Economic Research Service arm of the US Department of Agriculture, grocery store prices this year are forecast to increase between 1.5% and 2.5%, while restaurant prices are expected to rise between 3% and 4%.

The rates, however, are not unprecedented, according to the USDA. It states that between the 1970s and early 2000s, both grocery and restaurant prices grew at similar rates.

Managing more than food

Transportation costs also have skyrocketed for the wholesale arm of Costeaux, which delivers its products throughout Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Marin, San Francisco and the East Bay counties.

“The increase in gas prices is a big piece of the business,” Seppi said, adding that the cost of labor also is steep. “The continued upward pressures that we have on wages and the general cost of living in Sonoma County compounds matters further.”

In addition, the café in downtown Healdsburg continues to remain open just five days a week rather than seven, a move that was made during the pandemic and that won’t change anytime soon, he said.

Seppi has seen some turnover and labor shortages throughout the pandemic, but for the most part has been OK with staffing.

“By and large, we’ve been very fortunate to have a great core group that just continued to navigate the turbulent waters,” he said.

Staffing, supply chain headaches

Other North Bay area restaurants have not been so lucky.

John Ash & Co. at Vintners Resort in Santa Rosa has raised its hourly wages by between 15% to 20%, said Robin Ameral, food and beverage director.

But even higher wages haven’t moved the needle much in attracting qualified job candidates in an expensive county that has seen more people leave than arrive, let alone the mass exodus of hospitality workers since the pandemic began.

The resumes that do trickle in often don’t match the job qualifications.

“We are in the process of trying to hire a sous chef, and we’re just having trouble finding anybody with that skill set,” Ameral said.

A sous chef is typically second in command in a kitchen, right behind the executive chef. The sous chef opening that John Ash & Co. is trying to fill also is intended to help offset the restaurant’s ongoing shortage of line cooks.

And then there are the rising food costs and supply chain issues to contend with. Wine and liquor is mostly out of stock, Ameral noted, and food prices, particularly for beef and seafood, have become exorbitant.

“We used to have an add-scallops option, but scallops are so expensive we took it off the menu because we didn’t want people to have to pay $15 for a scallop,” Ameral said. “So we have a scallop dish, but it comes with prawns, too.”

Inflation’s biting impact

Inflationary costs have become part of everyday life for Felicia Ferguson, co-owner of Piazza D’Angelo, a family-owned Italian restaurant in Mill Valley in business for 40 years.

“I am getting every vendor that we work with saying they are increasing prices,” Ferguson said. The biggest hikes are in meat and imported goods, such as the wines she purchases from Europe.

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“I urge prosecutors to release what we have requested and more,” San Francisco Regulatory Authority Catherine Stefani said during a public safety and neighborhood services committee hearing.

ACTION: Get help with violence, assault, and abuse at home

Stefani says there is evidence that victims of domestic violence are kept short in the criminal justice system. It introduced a law in May that, if passed, would require the SFPD and the prosecutor’s office to provide quarterly reports on domestic violence cases to the board of directors, the mayor and other city departments.

“Reporting requires how many calls to 911 are made that are related to domestic violence and how many of those calls involve a child or a gun,” Stefani said.

VIDEO: SF program pays vulnerable residents $ 300 each month to help reduce violence

Legislation would also require that the number of domestic violence cases submitted to prosecutors be disclosed along with the charges filed and the outcome of those cases.

The bill’s hearing follows a report recently released by the Family Violence Council that found that 79 percent of people fleeing abuse and / or seeking protection were turned away during the pandemic due to capacity constraints and increased demand.

“It is very difficult for domestic violence survivors to leave the country,” said Jenny Pearlman, who works with Safe and Sound, a children’s aid organization. “If a family that has experienced violence has no shelter, the family will most likely have to return to the home where the abuse takes place.”

RELATED: Taking Domestic Violence Calls While Staying at COVID-19 Santa Clara Co.

There were 131 arrests for domestic violence crimes in San Francisco in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to SFPD. 86 percent of these cases were dismissed, only nine percent were charged.

ABC7 reached out to the prosecutor’s office and asked for a larger sample of this data to see how many domestic violence cases were indicted throughout the year. Our team did not receive this information before our deadline, but received the following statement:

“Numbers declined during the pandemic, especially during detention periods, which particularly affected cases of domestic violence. As a result, our office has also allocated significant resources to expanding support for domestic violence victims to provide shelter and transportation during the pandemic. ”

VIDEO: Woman calls 911, orders pizza to signal domestic violence

The prosecutor’s office also told ABC7 that filing and fee rates for domestic violence cases in San Francisco rose from 24 percent in 2020 to 31 percent this year. By comparison, over the past five years, the highest fee rate reported for this type of case was 35 percent in 2018.

“I just think we have to do better,” said Stefani.

The draft law will be presented to the Supervisory Board for the first full vote in two weeks.

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