DeKalb County restaurant owners talk reopening, dire need of staff: ‘It’s a different world’

Editor’s Note: This is Part 3 of a three-part series looking at local effects and repercussions of the State of Illinois’ decision and preparation to reopen fully for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly 500 days ago. Known as Phase 5 of the Restore Illinois plan, the restrictions on all indoor and outside crowd gatherings are expected to lift Friday. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

It’s been a long 15 months for Nate Walters, general manager for Tapa La Luna in DeKalb, since the restaurant first closed its doors when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he said. But staff are more than eager to welcome back loyal customers.

Walters said the restaurant’s management team was floored when they got hit with so many phone calls after he posted on the restaurant’s social media pages about the restaurant reopening soon – so much so they’re keeping the restaurant re-opening date vague to keep crowds manageable. He said Thursday the team continues to update their menu to work around distribution cost hikes and other issues coming out of the pandemic – including quality cuts of beef that used to cost $15 per pound but now cost $40 per pound, for example.

“It’s a different, different world,” Walters said.

On Friday, the state entered Phase 5 of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzer’s Restore Illinois plan. That means a full reopening and no gathering restrictions on indoor or outdoor activities as COVID-19 virus activity continues to trend downward since the arrival of vaccines.

Mohammed Labadi, owner of The Huddle in DeKalb, said Thursday he wouldn’t mind being overwhelmed with customers, and was busy at work preparing to open the rest of his dining room back up ahead of Friday’s reopening. He said his total staff numbers went from nearly 20 people to seven, with four of those workers being part of his family.

Labadi said he thinks people receiving more unemployment benefit money than they would have working in food service partly contributed to widespread staffing shortages. It’s a hot topic debate around the hospitality industry these days, as local business owners throughout the week have reiterated. He said the business received a federal paycheck protection program loan to help pay employees during the first application round but didn’t for the second.

It was community outreach, Labadi said, that helped his business financially during pandemic-related closures and capacity limits. He cited the local group Taking Care of Our Caretakers DeKalb County, which bought meals from local businesses to give to local caretakers, including healthcare workers.

“I think that’s what kept our doors open,” Labadi said.

Hana Green, bar manager at Tapa La Luna, said the restaurant only has a few returning servers with the dining room’s reopening in a few weeks. However, she said management was able to have enough quality candidates apply for server jobs to bring the restaurant up to full staffing levels, about a dozen total staff.

“Even just in the last couple of weeks – from knowing people in other areas, in northern Illinois and other restaurants in this town – we didn’t have a problem, which is rare and we know that was rare,” Green said. “But we were fortunate people wanted to apply here. People have been waiting for us to open for both reasons, to come and patron and because people knew we’re probably going to be needing help. So we actually had a nice selection of people right away, which was very lucky.”

‘A kick in the pants’

Although out-of-work servers collecting more money through unemployment benefits than they might have earned working in a restaurant hasn’t helped the current hiring situation restaurants face, Walters said he doesn’t think the struggle is solely because people don’t want to work.

Because restaurants were closed or at limited capacity throughout the pandemic, he said he believes area hospitality workers spent the uncertain work time reorienting their life’s priorities.

“This is the kick in the pants for so many people to leave the industry,” Walters said.

Grace Gehrke, a returning server at Tapa La Luna, said she admittedly thought about leaving the food service industry altogether when she had the time to think and take stock of her own life while she was unemployed during the pandemic.

Instead, she ended up working for her family’s businesses – Gehrke Grass-Fed Beef Farm, one of the restaurant’s suppliers, and Gehrke Construction, Inc. – during the past 15 months. She said she eventually wants to work toward running both shows one day, which was something she might not have even considered if it weren’t for the pandemic.

Gehrke said she also worked a few server shifts at Fatty’s Pub & Grille in DeKalb for a little extra money during that time. She said she loves being a server and appreciates the communication skills it helped develop for her, but she acknowledged the job can be stressful and overwhelming.

“But when Tapa said they were opening, I was like, ‘oh my gosh, I literally miss it so much,’ just because it’s like a big family,” Gehrke said. “And I really do like serving. It’s just, when it closed, I thought about a lot of things in my life and what happened, like what should I do when everything is like back to normal.”

Jesus Romero, one of the owners of Taxco Mexican Cuisine in Sycamore, said that he is “excited we can finally start to get back to normal” with Phase 5.

“A lot of businesses took a big hit financially during the pandemic, and we are starting to feel a little bit more normal now,” he said. “But the big problem is having enough employees. We are hiring in all positions: bartenders, wait staff, busboys and cooks.”

Romero said that before the pandemic, he had about 20 full-time staff and additional part-time staff. He said now he has about 15 total staff.

“We are definitely short of staff, and right now, it is a problem for all of the restaurants,” he said. “Fully reopening is great, but all of the restaurants are fighting to hire new people.”

Once he hires more staff, Romero said he plans on reopening the restaurant’s sidewalk café and offering more tables for his customers.

“I’m just excited to have families and friends coming together to celebrate,” he said. “People will be able to be at one table, in one room. They can come together to celebrate all occasions, happy and sad: birthdays, engagements, weddings, anniversaries and even funerals. People were deprived and unable to celebrate the life of their loved ones. I think we are all excited to return to some kind of normal.”

Taxco Mexican Cuisine is celebrating its 29th year in business this year.

“We’re looking forward to keep serving our homemade food, our homemade tortillas,” Romero said. “I am so grateful and thankful for everyone’s support this past year and through all the years. I am proud to be part of this caring community.”

‘It’s nice to know it’s not just us’

Like his fellow DeKalb restaurateurs, Gavin Wilson, one of the owners of Hillside Restaurant in DeKalb, is also carrying on with fewer staff than normal.

He said his total staffing went from 30 employees to 15 during the pandemic but made it work with mostly carry-out orders for more than a year.

With Friday being the first day of full reopening in Illinois, Wilson said his current staffing predicament means changing restaurant business hours to being open four days per week. He said the restaurant will expand its hours once staff levels increase.

“But it’s nice to know that it’s not just us,” Wilson said.

Brooke Kanas, another returning server at Tapa La Luna, said she was sad to hear the restaurant was going to close during the pandemic. She said she also is eager to come back because she misses the patrons and staff and is less worried about now that she is fully vaccinated from COVID-19.

Kanas said she urges the public to continue supporting local businesses, including restaurants, as the world starts moving out of the pandemic.

“I know people aren’t 100% comfortable with [dining indoors] quite yet, because you can see ... restaurants aren’t as full as they normally are this time of year,” Kanas said. “But if there’s anything you can do to just come out and support your local restaurants, local businesses, local artists – because we’ve been hurting in the past year.”