Louis Barrios likens the restaurant business to traversing a minefield.
Restaurant owners have long had to avoid getting blown up by razor-thin margins; for the past several years they’ve also had to navigate a global pandemic, which in turn led to labor shortages and rising costs — and in San Antonio, at least, near-constant road construction.
Add to that a second summer of unrelenting heat, toss in the threat of rolling blackouts and, well, it’s hard to remain unscathed.
Business is way down due to the relentless heat, Barrios said, describing near-empty patios at La Hacienda and Viola’s Ventanas, where he continues to pay musicians, whom he called “part of our restaurant family.”
Jason Dady, whose restaurants include Jardín at the Botanical Garden, Tre Trattoria, Range and Two Bros. BBQ Market, said this summer “is probably the worst I’ve seen” for the restaurant industry in the past 15 to 20 years. The heat’s effect on business is “the talk of the town” among restaurateurs, he said.
Lunch traffic hasn’t been too badly hurt — although Dady acknowledged few diners want to sit outside — and he said he’s seen a “slight uptick” in to-go orders.
But once someone has waded through the heat to get to their car after work, he said, “they only have one thought, and that’s to get home out of the heat.”
Learning that Texas was facing the possibility of rolling blackouts Thursday evening if demand exceeded supply on the state’s grid added yet another layer of concern. Dady said he called a quick Zoom meeting with staff to make sure each restaurant had a plan.
“[Thursday] put people on alert” that summer rolling blackouts were now a possibility, he said. “Hopefully going forward everyone understands that they’ll need a game plan.”
While hot Texas summers are nothing new, Emily Williams Knight, president and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, said what’s different this summer is the unrelenting nature of the heat.
On Sunday, San Antonio suffered through its 60th day above 100 degrees, breaking its previous record, set in 2009. The state’s grid operator asked Texans to voluntarily reduce their energy use six times in the past 10 days. Triple-digit temperatures are expected to continue this week.
The heat, along with factors like rising utility bills and increased food prices, is leading some consumers to simply stay home, Williams Knight said. Meanwhile, restaurants are also dealing with higher utility and food costs, putting added pressure on already thin margins.
“We call it whack-a-mole,” she said. “There’s not been a week in the past three years that restaurants haven’t had something new to deal with.”
Andres Muñoz, chief marketing officer for Visit San Antonio, said every business related to tourism in San Antonio has been negatively affected by the record-setting weather.
Summer travel is a “critical driver” of the region’s annual tourism business, he said, but national coverage of the state’s extreme heat “affects everyone’s desire to come here,” in turn negatively affecting every sector of the hospitality business, from restaurants and bars to lodging and attractions.
Muñoz said San Antonio is faring well compared with other cities in Texas, and because the threat of rolling summer blackouts is so new, it hasn’t yet hit the national media in a way that could further hurt tourism.
With power outages, restaurants not only lose revenue from a loss of customers, they also face the loss of perishable products, Williams Knight said. “The lack of understanding by … state officials to the impact of places like restaurants is alarming.”
Barrios made a similar point, adding that he’s continually trying to help elected officials on both sides of the aisle understand the challenges facing the industry. An unreliable grid shouldn’t be one of those challenges, he said.
Barrios has taken matters partly into his own hands by installing hundreds of solar panels over two of his restaurants’ parking lots. The panels, which will offer customers some immediate relief when they return to their cars after a meal, are expected to save him $55,000 annually on his utility bills. They also will help ease demand on the grid.
With 51 years in the business, Barrios acknowledged that his longevity helps him take the long view. “Un día mas, un día menos,” he said Friday, employing the phrase as a reminder that this terrible heat, too, shall pass.
“The restaurant business is so hard, physically and emotionally,” he said. “But it also brings so much joy.”
Choosing his words carefully, Barrios also said he hopes customers can understand how hard restaurant employees are working and show them compassion when things are not perfect.
Williams Knight echoed his sentiment, calling for customers to reembrace their pandemic-era generosity. “Because of the way Texans wrapped their arms around local restaurants, we had one of the best reopenings in the country,” she said.
That could mean venturing out in the heat to visit a local restaurant, ordering takeout or not blasting a less-than-perfect experience on social media, she said: “We’re asking for our guests to once again show a little grace to those employees.”
