GREENSBORO, N.C. — Freeman's Grub and Pub is pausing their brunch service because of staff shortages.
The Greensboro restaurant on Spring Garden Street announced the change in a Facebook post last Sunday. A restaurant manager told WFMY News 2 that the pandemic has created a seemingly endless cycle of challenges.
"We hate to have to do it, but it’s so hard just to keep running and just trying no matter what you do, it’s just every week," Michael Marlowe, the restaurant's beverage director, said. "It’s one thing on top of another. You get over this hurdle, here we go, here comes the next one."
Freeman's will also close the weekend of August 28 because of staff shortages. The restaurant will pay workers who are losing hours from the closure. Hours will remain the same despite the menu changes.
Marlowe said they are having issues recruiting and retaining staff members.
"Let’s say you have 40 people who apply, you run through the hiring process or you look through all those, you get maybe 12 or 15 to come in for interviews and they go great we can hire all of them," Marlowe said. "Maybe one or two show up for a first shift, and you’re lucky if you get to keep them for the next two weeks, and then they just disappear."
In the Facebook post, the restaurant also said that nationwide supply chain issues have impacted the business.
"You can't get to-go boxes anymore, so you gotta keep running around all over town trying to find those," Marlowe said. "Luckily, we have had our sister restaurant and being able to pull things from there as we needed, whether it’s staff or product. just to be able to keep things running. But it just gets to a point where you can’t do that constantly."
In the post, the restaurant said the challenges are an "undeniable reality that we must accept and navigate." They said they hope the changes to how they operate are temporary and short-lived.