As she struggles to keep her business afloat during a pandemic, Mojo Burrito owner Eve Williams said finding enough people to work is nearly as daunting a challenge as the dramatic dropoff in business.
"The restaurant worker shortage is not a new thing, but right now it's a killer," said Williams, who founded the restaurant in St. Elmo in 2002.
Williams permanently closed the Ooltewah location of Mojo Burrito last year solely because she couldn't find enough staff to keep it open, she said.
"If you can't find employees, you can't run a restaurant," she said. "That was the only reason."
Last spring and summer, enhanced unemployment payments and stimulus funding made it tough to attract employees across Mojo's locations, she said.
"I don't blame anyone for not working during that," she said.
Now, it's tough because the environment is so volatile and stressful, and tips are hard to come by when she's operating on a takeout basis and offering virtually no indoor dining options, Williams said.
"It requires extra people to man the outside, so it's a struggle," she said. "When I see employees unhappy and overworked because they can't keep staffed, what do you do?"
Many experienced restaurant workers were accustomed to predictable patterns of demand and income, and the industry has been on a completely disorienting roller coaster for nearly a year, said Mia Littlejohn, co-owner of Proof, a bar, restaurant and culinary incubator.
"It's just tricky because everybody's looking right now for some stability and the industry is so unpredictable, especially for front of-the-house staff that was dependent on tips," she said. "In the restaurant industry, we have thought for a while maybe there would be a plateau or we'd come out on the other side, and I think we're just getting used to not being able to know what the next challenge is going to be."
(Read more: Chattanooga food providers, bars, continue to adapt to coronavirus pandemic.)
Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Clark Gibson, left, gives a lunch order to customer Thomas Diego under a tent at Mojo Burrito in St. Elmo on Monday. Owner Eve Williams is keeping her business afloat with takeout and limited outdoor dining, and attracting staff has been a challenge.Williams is keeping the St. Elmo and Red Bank locations of Mojo Burrito alive with carryout and delivery orders, as well as limited outdoor dining in St. Elmo, but the experience is not always great for customers accustomed to lining up shoulder-to-shoulder and watching employees assemble their meals, she said.
"It's really confusing and frustrating, and we've definitely disappointed some of our audience," Williams said. "That's never fun, but it's a lot harder to make an entree when you're following a ticket down the line rather than talking to a customer."
She's down to less than half the roughly 90 employees she had before the pandemic, business is off 60%, and she's taking things day by day, Williams said. Above all, she wants to keep employees and customers safe from the pandemic, and she can't see a way to bring people indoors safely, she added.
"I'm not a martyr, but if I go out of business over this, that is my fate," she said. "I have considered shutting down and waiting it out, but that puts out all my faithful, hardworking employees that have been with me so many years."
Contact Mary Fortune at mfortune@timesfreepress.com. Follow her on Twitter at @maryfortune.