The Restaurant Industry’s ‘Missing Middle’

Like the ‘missing middle’ often described in the housing sector, the restaurant industry is also facing the disappearance of ‘middle-class’ eateries that fill the niche between fast food and high-end restaurants. As an article from Michigan Information & Research Service Inc. explains, “The fact that eating out is becoming so unaffordable for so many people, you start losing a critical element in terms of the concept of third places, these places where you gather that are not home or church,” said Ann McBride, the James Beard Foundation's vice president of impact.

At an event moderated by the foundation, restaurant owners expressed concern about rising costs for ingredients, supplies, fuel, labor, and housing for workers. “Last year, according to the foundation's recent report, 70 percent of independent restaurant chefs increased menu prices by under 10 percent, and 11 percent of chefs increased them by 10 percent or more. During the year before that, 28 percent of chefs heightened their menu costs by 10 percent or more.” Many have been unable to give employees raises or maintain workforce housing programs. 

Some attendees called on Congress to include more provisions in an updated Farm Bill to fund food policy councils and empower regional organizations to work on food security issues that affect restaurants and the broader community.