Every restaurant owner has had some serious thinking to do over the past couple of years. Grappling with shut downs, reopenings, strict sanitation protocols and severely limited seating capacity has altered the restaurant industry.
“The economy of the restaurant is changing whether we like it or not,” says David Jackman, chef and owner of Chocolate Restaurant on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz—a popular destination for more than 22 years.
“The primary issue shifting the structure of the food industry is staffing,” he says. “The whole Covid period taught us the importance of asking ourselves: How few people can we run the restaurant with, if need be?” Jackman is currently operating with half the number of employees he had before Covid.
“If young people are to choose restaurant kitchen work as even a short-term career in Central California, they will need to make enough money to live here. How will that work? Somehow restaurant owners, waitstaff, cooks, and restaurant customers will all need to be agreement about the money. How much money is spent on who?
“Because of my core beliefs and our almost entirely organic sourcing, Chocolate has never been a get-rich scheme. It has always been a keep-pedaling-to-stay-afloat approach,” he says. “The purpose of making money is so we can continue to do what we’re doing. Generating money for the strength of the organization and the longevity of it.
“That is what I come from and that’s what I believe in. The purpose of generating money is to work together to keep doing it,” he adds.
It is a strong philosophy and has helped Jackman keep his doors open during this difficult time in our history. That and the ability to do multiple jobs in the restaurant that otherwise he would have had to hire someone else to do. His core staff members are equally committed.
“In many ways, the cooperative model that we were operating in Italy, was not dissimilar to a family business. And here at Chocolate, we are operating a classic family style business,” he says.
That connectivity, where everyone is working toward a shared goal, helping each other thrive within a unified vision, is what has inspired Jackman over the years. “That is what a family business is.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, Jackman says it was just him and his wife Lori Rivera working in the restaurant. “I worked the line, and my wife got the food out to customers for pick-up and delivery services. Later, when one of my cooks got Covid, I worked alone on the line six-nights a-week for a month. Without those skills, we would not have been able to keep the restaurant open.”
Now as people return to eating out, nearly every restaurant in the area is trying to staff up.
“Our outlook here is good, because no matter how much difficulty we have finding people, I know there is always a way to stay open,” he says.
“Our baker Elizabeth is almost 75 years old. I told her I want 10 more years!” Elizabeth and David began working together at Emily’s Bakery on Mission St. in 1982. Since 2007, Elizabeth has been working at Chocolate making all sorts of chocolate cakes, seasonal fruit pies, even chicken pies, and of course those chocolate-mousse truffles that the restaurant is so well-known for. “At this point, Elizabeth is a lifelong friend!” he says.
Jackman knows his younger staff members are crucial as well and has plenty of praise for the generation working at entry level jobs in the service industry.
“Young people today have better social skills than the young people of 20 years ago, when we had just opened. They are more empathetic to a customer’s needs and offer superior hospitality. It makes many young people suited for table service because they are so wonderfully sociable and nice,” he says.
But every restaurant owner will tell you that skilled kitchen staff is increasingly at a premium. “As time passes, fewer and fewer children have grown up performing household tasks,” he says. “Fewer kids are learning in-depth cooking skills from parents and grandparents. That deficiency has led to a smaller pool of people ready to work in kitchens.” Add that to the above-mentioned economic challenges in our area and you get a recipe for slim-pickings when searching for kitchen workers.
Despite these current constraints, Jackman is confident that Chocolate will survive. Even when it was exhausting and difficult during the worst parts of the pandemic, he could recognize positive elements and silver linings. “Being a restaurant that has always focused on outdoor dining, the whole format was natural for us, and for our customers. “
“Now I’m out on the floor all the time. I make and serve the cocktails, I’m in constant contact with the customers. I’m 63 now, and have 13 more years on our lease. You just adapt your role to be appropriate for your age, as a restaurant owner…maybe at 75 it means you’re not the one scrubbing behind the fridge anymore, but hopefully you are doing what feels appropriate for your age,” he reflects.
Chocolate the Restaurant • 1522 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz • 831.427.9900 • chocolatesantacruz.com • online orders: chocolate-the-restaurant.square.site
About the author
Amber Turpin is a freelance food and travel writer based in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
