Local restaurant owners see a decline in dining room traffic: Andrew Coppolino | CBC News

When restaurateur Andrew Tutt opens a spreadsheet for his TuttCo. bistro in St. Marys and compares sales to last year, the downward trend he sees certainly isn’t ideal. But it is a shared reality for many restaurants across the country.

“Looking at the numbers, it’s kind of scary what we are down compared to last year. I know we were brand new, but this is way more reflective of us just being a new restaurant,” Tutt says.

In fact, according to popular restaurant reservations platform Open Table, traffic to restaurant dining rooms across the country has seen a steady decline since June with an even steeper slide in the past three months. Open Table data is generated from tracking online, phone and walk-in reservations year over year.

Widespread inflation, rising food costs, skyrocketing mortgages and general rate hikes across the board have hurt most sectors of the economy. And when it comes to restaurants, dining-out traffic has been affected and customers are pulling back on discretionary spending.

Locally, while larger restaurant groups like the Charcoal Group have weathered the storm with some comfort, smaller groups and independents have felt the decline.

Ryan Lloyd-Craig is chief operating officer for Ignite, a group of brands that includes Graffiti Market, Crowsfoot Smokehaus and Rich Uncle Tavern. Lloyd-Craig, a veteran of the industry for many years, is seeing fewer visitors to the restaurants.

“Numbers are down across the board, from number of people … to the cheque average. Whereas a party of four maybe would have each had a dessert, or at least two of them, now maybe it’s one shared between four,” says Lloyd-Craig.

Diners, he adds, are more price conscious than ever with interest rates high and disposable income down.

At the Cambridge Mill, part of Pearle Hospitality, general manager Alex Kastner notes that while they have had many more walk-ins than usual, he has noticed what he calls “market shifts” in this last year.

It’s a similar mixed bag at Borealis Grille & Bar in Kitchener and Guelph, according to Court Desautels of Neighbourhood Group. Guest visits to dining rooms are down but Desautels notes that sales are up.

“One reason might be that people may be going out less but are spending more on themselves. Necessary menu price increases are the second reason,” says Desautels. “It’s tough to compare to last summer as we were just coming out of lock down and people were amped about being out.”

Ultimately, Desautels, even as veteran of the industry, can’t quite put his finger on the issue.

“Who knows what’s going on these days,” he asks.

Downward trend felt across the region

Among smaller venues, Trio in Uptown Waterloo says that their sales are flat, while Nadia Dragusanu of Café du Monde Cambridge says her business is down somewhat.

“Last year, we had lots of corporate catering as companies tried to lure staff back into the office. This year, not so much,” she says.

Owner at Kitchener’s America Latina, Mynor Garcia, says his sales have stayed pretty much even, but he offers the caveat that the small restaurant inside the Latino grocery store with a loyal following has yet to raise its prices.

In Roseville, The Ridge Social Eatery says September is generally slower but that visits are down significantly from this time last year.

Adhu Thirumaran owns Classic Indian in north Waterloo, a popular restaurant that has been operating since 2001, giving Thirumaran a long view of trends and market shifts.

Traditionally, he says fall is a busy time as students, especially first-year students, and their families come into town as college and university begins.

“We saw that was a bit of a decline compared to last year. Families dropping off students to school … we didn’t see a whole lot of that happening this year,” Thirumaran says.

For all restaurateurs, watching interest rates and the health — and wealth — of the economy is critical. Tutt in St. Marys says personal finances have many potential restaurant patrons concerned and massive mortgage rates have people “tapped out.”

In the meantime, conditions have prompted him to change the way he operates, especially as a relatively new business, while he watches economic factors.

“I’m weathering the storm, but it means me working on the floor more than I’d like to and out of the kitchen more than I should be.”