Long Island diners shuttering as labor shortage, inflation puts restaurants in a tight spot
PLAINVIEW, N.Y. -- The squeeze is hitting many restaurants hard, and some can't afford to keep their doors open.
The combination of the labor shortage and inflation is putting restaurants in a tight spot, and some deli owners on Long Island tell CBS2's Jennifer McLogan it's closing time.
The Regal Kosher Delicatessen is about to serve its last knish. It's been a mainstay in Plainview for 56 years, owned by the Weiss family -- grandparents, parents and now their children.
"It's very sad -- I'm going to start to cry -- because this is my whole life," said Joyce Weiss Schwartz.
"The meats, since COVID, have gone, skyrocketed," deli owner Sherri Weiss Banks said.
With daily fluctuations and spiking costs, the family couldn't continue to raise menu prices.
"Therefore, we are not making enough money to survive," Weiss Banks said.
They're now giving cuttings away of the enormous century-old rubber plants that canopy the ceiling.
"They feed on the corned beef and the pastrami and the oils. That's what keeps them so alive," Weiss Banks said.
Customer Marc Shaier made the trip from Brooklyn for a pastrami on rye, while Barbara Powell ordered for her bridge club.
"Very nice platters of meat and side dishes -- knishes and cole slaw," Powell said.
But Regal Deli and two others -- Morrison's and Plainview Diner -- are all closing in as many weeks due to food price inflation, rents rising, lack of parking and the labor shortage.
Morrison's shuttered after more than two decades. It's where chef Harry Poole met the owner's daughter.
"Came home from college break, we met, and 20 years later, we're married with two kids," he said.
His father-in-law, Arthur Bloom, tried make it through COVID, but he was forced to make a painful decision.
"My sales plummeted," he said. "You can't afford the rents ... You can't get help."
Experts see one solution.
"Quick message: COVID's over. Folks need to get off the couch and get back to work. It's really that simple," said Eric Alexander, with the Main Street Alliance.
"My coworkers that have worked here their whole lives and that's all they know," Weiss Banks said.
She says her faithful staff will be pounding the pavement as loyal customers take their last bites of hot dog, sauerkraut and, of course, soup and matzo balls.