Illinois restaurants scramble to find workers

[April 24, 2021]    By Zeta Cross

(The Center Square) – When it comes to staffing, the pandemic has hit area restaurants hard and it is now forcing them to scramble to find workers.

Fear of contracting COVID-19 has scared workers away from restaurant kitchens in favor of delivery work and other jobs with less contact with the public.

“In a restaurant, you are in close proximity to the guests. A lot of staff are still really uncomfortable,” chef Carrie Nahabedian, co-owner of the award-winning French restaurant Brindille in River North, said.

Brindille is luckier than most restaurants, Nahabedian said, in that all the staff who work in the front of the restaurant have stuck with her through the COVID-19 shutdowns. They are eager to finally get back to work this spring.

Meantime, Brindille will reopen for 4 days a week by the end of April. By summer, Nahabedian hopes the restaurant will be able to open 5 days a week. Without enough staff, she and her core workers will knock themselves out to keep up the quality experience that her customers expect, she said.