COVINGTON, Ky. — A Northern Kentucky restaurant's plea for help on Facebook has been indicative of issues impacting the larger restaurant industry in the Tri-State, the Kentucky Restaurant Association said.
Libby's Southern Comfort in Covington invited community members to pack the restaurant this week to counter rising operational costs and the skyrocketing cost of goods heading into the holidays.
Michelle Wainscott said she's trying to avoid closing her doors for good.
"Seeing all of our friends in the industry that have shut down in recent weeks. It's scary," Wainscott said. "We don't want to be the next one."
The southern comfort staple featuring fried chicken, shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes and more has been open since 2019, a year before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered shops across the country.
Wainscott said that was a difficult hurdle to overcome, but rising prices have driven their business to the brink of collapse.
"A case of shrimp has gone from $64 to $98 — for a case of shrimp that we use in our shrimp and grits that we sell all the time," Wainscott said.
Kentucky Restaurant Association President Stacy Roof said rising prices have hurt businesses heading into the holidays but an expected drop in people eating out in January could be the nail in the coffin for many small businesses.
"We'll definitely see that," Roof said. "We see it every single year in January when the Visa bill comes."
Roof said local restaurant owners can take advantage of resources offered by the restaurant association to stay afloat, or they can search for solutions through the Small Business Association and Small Business Development Center.
The biggest boon for business is normally the one in plain sight, however: dining out when and if you have the resources.
"Those dollars really help keep those places afloat," she said.
Both Roof and Wainscott said the purchases of gift cards could also be key to businesses because it gives them cash on hand to continue operations, and the gift could introduce their food to new lifelong customers who otherwise wouldn't have tried them.
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