No happy hour, cheaper cuts of meat: How B.C. restaurants are handling sky-high inflation

After two years of weathering COVID-19 restrictions, pre-pandemic crowds have returned to the Glowbal group of restaurants in Metro Vancouver.

"We finished with the masks and the mandates and we got to the other side of it," said owner Emad Yacoub.

But now B.C’.s restaurant industry is being hammered by year-over-year inflation at rates not seen in Canada for decades. And that’s driving up costs for food and supplies.

"With the inflation that’s happening right now, it’s just out of hand. I don’t know what to do anymore," said Yacoub during an interview at his eatery Italian Kitchen in downtown Vancouver.

He explained restaurants are struggling with a dilemma: How much of their extra costs can they pass along before customers decide it’s too expensive to dine out? For example, he says a steak that cost him $18 wholesale last year is now $28.

"So when a steak is $28, how much are we going to sell it for? And how much is the consumer willing to pay? We are taking this increase straight from our bottom line, because we can’t keep increasing our prices or the consumer will stop coming," said Yacoub.

To keep costs down, he expects some restaurants will stop offering happy hour prices and make cost-cutting changes to their menus.

“You don’t put a striploin, maybe you use a hangar steak. Some chicken instead of high-end fish. That’s what people will have to start doing to their menus,” said Yacoub.

With inflation expected to continue to rise through the summer, locals eager to get back to dining out likely won’t be enough to get B.C. restaurants through the crisis.

"If the tourists come in and fill up the extra seats that we have empty, I think the budget will balance and we will be okay," said Yacoub. "So that’s what we’re hoping for."