Racine Sun

With rising inflation marking recent highs across the country, restaurants managers and owners have been forced to adapt their businesses to compete with rising prices.

In a Feb. 11 report, NBC 26 said fan-favorite dishes are becoming splurges at restaurants in the state, with prices for steak and seafood increasing by about 25 to 30% over the past two years and rising in 5% increments each month. Jerry Lintz, a restaurant management instructor at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, told NBC 26 he has taken a new approach, teaching students ways to cut costs without raising prices.

“You can make minor changes in price, ingredients, change your business hours. There's other things to do rather than looking at cost-cutting. Cost-cutting carries a negative approach,” Lintz said.

According to the report, much of the recent inflation has caused a subsequent increase in labor costs.

While some have learned to get creative by sourcing from local farms, for example, NBC states others have taken a problem-solving approach to determine the best way to serve their customers.

Alongside the rising prices, the pandemic has also brought many restaurant owners and managers back into the kitchen, shouldering some of the work they previously delegated in order to tackle the rising cost of labor, NBC reports.