High egg prices have Joliet-area restaurants, bakeries scrambling

Bill Dimitroulas, president of Arkas Restaurant Group in Joliet, goes through a lot of eggs every day.

Five Joliet restaurants – Rosemary Café, CUT 158 Chophouse, Hambergerseria, Mousa Greek Tavern and Julie’s Tavern – along with CUT Catering are all part of the Arkas Restaurant Group.

And eggs, Dimitroulas said, are “three times what we used to pay.” Dimitroulas said he can’t raise prices to compensate because his menus “are pretty standard.”

“So, yeah, it’s horrible,” Dimitroulas said.

He said even temporarily changing the menus won’t help. By then, egg prices likely would decrease.

“The customer will say, ‘Hey, egg prices are down. Why are we paying so much for an omelet?’” Dimitroulas said. “Which is common sense.”

Dimitroulas said people sometimes cut back on eating eggs “when there’s a fear for public health.” He’s also seen a rise in chicken prices, but not as steep as eggs.

“You’re losing money, no question about it,” Dimitroulas said. “But for how long can you afford to lose money? The last time it was for a few weeks. Now, no one knows how long it’s going to last.”

Jim Letsos, owner of Maple Butter Café in Plainfield, has watched egg prices rise over the last year. Letsos estimated that he pays double for eggs now.

“They’re very, very expensive,” he said. “But still, we’re trying to manage to serve our people and not skyrocket the price.”

“You’re losing money, no question about it. But for how long can you afford to lose money? The last time it was for a few weeks. Now, no one knows how long it’s going to last.”

—  Bill Dimitroulas, president of the Arkas Restaurant Group in Joliet

Letsos said that if egg costs don’t decrease, he may need to “inch up prices just a little bit” just to cover his costs, but he’s hoping to avoid that.

“Because we’re hoping within the next few months we might see them drop,” Letsos said.

In the meantime, he said he is willing “to take a loss for the sake of our customers.”

“When someone supports you all year-round, we can afford to take a little bit of loss like that,” Letsos said.

Steve Buresh, owner of Steve Buresh’s Cheesecake Store & Sandwich Shop and Steve Buresh’s Cookie Store in Plainfield, said he uses about 1,000 eggs a week and may have to raise prices soon if the cost of eggs doesn’t go down.

To cope in the meantime, Buresh is making less of his pie-stuffed cheesecakes – such as the key lime pie and the pecan pie – because those cheesecakes are very egg-heavy. He also has reduced the number of cookie flavors he sells.

“That’s pretty much all we can do,” Buresh said. “There’s not much different in liquid eggs or egg substitute. Everything seems to be pretty high right now.”

Edith Medina, who owns The Donut Shop in Lockport with her husband Victor, said the influence that the price increase has on bakeries depends on what they’re making.

“We’re very fortunate to not have too many problems,” Medina said. “It depends on the kind of dough you’re using, so for us, the product we use most doesn’t require too much egg every time. I know other bakeries, like some of the Mexican bakeries, were affected more because of the things they’re making and the kind of dough they use.”

She said that for The Donut Shop, the biggest concern is the upcoming Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras holiday on March 4, also known as paczki day, which sees an increase in sales of Polish-style filled donuts.

“We use a different kind of dough for that, which requires a lot of egg,” Medina said, “but we knew that was coming, so we were mindful of it and started buying eggs in bulk earlier in January.”

One local bakery that has not yet been affected by the egg price surge is Nicola’s Heavenly Cucina in Lockport.

The bakery, located inside the city’s Metra station, 133 W. 13th St., specializes in Italian desserts, breakfast sandwiches and sourdough bread creations, and its owner, Nicole Pavlinic, prides herself on the use of organic, “high-quality” ingredients, including cage-free eggs from antibiotic-free chickens.

Pavlinic said she was afraid that she would have an issue in late January, when her usual supplier could not meet her demand after his farm was affected by the bird flu.

When she first started buying eggs for the bakery in October, she purchased 15 dozen at a time at $4.73 per dozen, she said.

“Last week, our normal distributer didn’t have any eggs to distribute due to the bird flu. We reached out to the small meat farmer who we get all our meat from in Edwardsburg, Michigan, [Bennett Farms]. He was not at all affected by the bird flu outbreak, and he provided 30 dozen eggs for about $4.50 per dozen, which will last us about two weeks,” Pavlinic said.

She has not had to raise prices, since the change in distributer actually has resulted in her paying less per dozen eggs, although she still is paying more than the average price of eggs pre-bird flu spike.

“I have zero worries about raising my prices now, thank goodness,” she said. “I’m actually thankful for the bird flu because the eggs I’m getting now are so much better. It was a blessing for us, for now, until or if it ever affects my farmer.

“I’m extremely grateful for this small farmer. This is what makes my bakery different than most. I’m always looking for higher quality, versus most other establishments are looking for the cheapest route. I wish more establishments would take quality into consideration.”