The Bay Area restaurant industry is facing a staffing shortage during the pandemic that its leaders say is unprecedented. Dishwashers are being asked to cook. Bartenders are bussing tables. And on busy nights, left with no other choice, owners are eliminating tables in already reduced-capacity dining rooms because they do not have enough wait staff.

Labor was limited even before the pandemic due to the Bay Area’s high cost of living and the industry’s comparatively low wages. But after the first and second shutdowns, laid-off restaurant workers left the profession. They started their own businesses, entered other industries, like tech or construction, or left the Bay Area altogether.

Now, with dining rooms reopening and a looming June 15 promise to return to normalcy, restaurant owners are scrambling to attract and retain workers by cross-training, increasing wages, offering referral programs and considering health benefits packages.

PALO ALTO, CA – MAY 1: Chef Peio Calvo uses a handheld torch while putting the finishing touches on a tomahawk steak at Teleferic Barcelona restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif., on Saturday, May 1, 2021. Following multiple COVID shutdowns restaurant workers have either left the Bay Area or gone into other industries, causing owners to increase wages, cross-train or provide other incentives to lure workers. Teleferic Barcelona owner Xavi Padrosa has increased wages up to 20 percent and pulled dishwashers on to the cooking line. On busy nights he has also had to sacrifice tables if he doesn’t have enough wait staff. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) 

The crisis is not limited to fine dining or the Bay Area. Restaurants around the country, including large fast-food operators, are struggling to secure employees. To lure them, Taco Bell is giving paid family leave to its store managers. Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches is offering signing bonuses for recruits.

Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and owner of two San Francisco restaurants, predicts there may be more people looking for work this fall when the government stimulus, which provides an extra $300 in federal unemployment on top of the state’s weekly stipend, is set to expire.

“That’s giving people a cushion,” she says. “It’s also causing them to think, ‘I don’t feel safe returning to work yet.'”

PALO ALTO, CA – MAY 1: Kaye Landerito, of Union City, enjoys an early dinner with her cousin Von Aguirre, of Union City, while dining at Teleferic Barcelona restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif., on Saturday, May 1, 2021. Following multiple COVID shutdowns restaurant workers have either left the Bay Area or gone into other industries, causing owners to increase wages, cross-train or provide other incentives to lure workers. Teleferic Barcelona owner Xavi Padrosa has increased wages up to 20 percent and pulled dishwashers on to the cooking line. On busy nights he has also had to sacrifice tables if he doesn’t have enough wait staff. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) 

To manage, Xavi Pedrosa, who owns Telefèric Barcelona in Walnut Creek and Palo Alto, has increased wages by 15 to 20 percent and sacrificed up to one-third of his tables on busy nights. He is also relying heavily on the can-do spirit of the employees he does have.

“We’ve had to move some of our dishwashers to the line, teach them how to cook,” he says.

Pedrosa believes every crisis has an opportunity — and for Teleferic, it has been launching Spanish markets that sell imported goods, creating paella kits and expanding his to-go business.

“It has been very, very hard,” he says. “But the situation is what it is.”

PALO ALTO, CA – MAY 1: Bartender Ubaldo Sanchez works feverishly to make drinks behind the bar at Teleferic Barcelona restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif., on Saturday, May 1, 2021. Following multiple COVID shutdowns restaurant workers have either left the Bay Area or gone into other industries, causing owners to increase wages, cross-train or provide other incentives to lure workers. Teleferic Barcelona owner Xavi Padrosa has increased wages up to 20 percent and pulled dishwashers on to the cooking line. On busy nights he has also had to sacrifice tables if he doesn’t have enough wait staff. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) 

Like Pedrosa, Fred Velez, the director of operations for King Fish House in San Jose and its Southern California locations, is looking at hiring younger workers to fill entry-level positions. After all, Velez was just 16 when he got his start as a line cook.

“I’m 49 and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he says.

PALO ALTO, CA – MAY 1: Waiter Jeff Wyatt takes the order of Tian Qiu, of Mountain View, and her boyfriend Johnny Hsu, of San Jose, while dining at Teleferic Barcelona restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif., on Saturday, May 1, 2021. Following multiple COVID shutdowns restaurant workers have either left the Bay Area or gone into other industries, causing owners to increase wages, cross-train or provide other incentives to lure workers. Teleferic Barcelona owner Xavi Padrosa has increased wages up to 20 percent and pulled dishwashers on to the cooking line. On busy nights he has also had to sacrifice tables if he doesn’t have enough wait staff. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) 

Last month, with Craiglist and Indeed job posts yielding so few candidates, Velez incentivized employees with a new referral program: If your friend gets hired and stays on the job for 90 days, you get $300 — and the new recruit gets $100.

“We’re on the hook with five crew members already,” he says. “It’s going to be money well spent.”

Like his counterparts, Velez is also being forced to stretch crew members. “We’re using hosts to bus tables and cooks to wash dishes.” The hardest jobs to fill have been in the kitchen — on the grill or sushi station — and in those cases, Velez is asking his part-timers to pick up extra shifts.

“We’ve leaned on them, and they’ve leaned on us, even become full time,” he says.

PALO ALTO, CA – MAY 1: Busboy Jhovany Bolena stocks the clean glasses while working the dinner rush at Teleferic Barcelona restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif., on Saturday, May 1, 2021. Following multiple COVID shutdowns restaurant workers have either left the Bay Area or gone into other industries, causing owners to increase wages, cross-train or provide other incentives to lure workers. Teleferic Barcelona owner Xavi Padrosa has increased wages up to 20 percent and pulled dishwashers on to the cooking line. On busy nights he has also had to sacrifice tables if he doesn’t have enough wait staff. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) 

Before the staffing crisis, May German, co-owner of Oakland’s Sobre Mesa and alaMar Kitchen & Bar, would bring in a potential job candidate as a stage — the term for a trial-run or short-term unpaid gig — but right now she’s more likely to go with her gut and hire on the spot.

“If you wait a few days, they’ll be gone,” she says. “Bars and other businesses are reopening too, and we’re all fighting for the shrinking pool at the same time.”

In the past year, German, who is married to co-owner and executive chef Nelson German, has lost critical back-of-the-house employees to construction work and front-of-the-house staffers to 9-to-5 jobs, like retail. Some moved in with their families in nearby Fresno and Modesto; others left the state for Texas, Oregon and Arizona, where the cost of living is lower.

“I get it,” she says. “It’s difficult to come out of unemployment.”

The Germans have had difficulty filling positions in the kitchen and dining room, even when advertising chef Nelson’s current status as a contestant on “Top Chef” and increasing starting wages by $2 per hour.

Currently, they are exploring ways to restructure their tip pool to benefit everyone on staff. And while they can’t afford to provide health benefits, they hope to someday. Overall, May German says they are lucky to have a small yet devoted staff who still love coming to work.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” she says. “We’re moving in the right direction. As long as we don’t have another shutdown.”

Scott Kleckner, retail and restaurant director at Belcampo in Oakland and San Mateo, shares that sentiment – as well as Pedrosa’s about crisis breeding opportunity.

“I have a butcher that has learned how to be a front-of-house supervisor,” he says. “Every one of our employees, with very few exceptions, has been cross-trained. That skill set and career path, they can take with them.

“It’s still the best industry in the world, one where you can start as a dishwasher and become a CEO,” he says. “We’ve just had a rough year.”