Local Blacksburg restaurants adapt amid soaring food prices
By Anthony Cusat
Local Blacksburg restaurants continue to be met with a surge in prices as the overall cost of food continues to rise worldwide. In the United States, recent data from the Department of Agriculture predicts the price of food overall as well as food-away-from-home are expected to rise 6.5 percent and 8.2 percent in 2023 respectively.
These historically high increases in price are an extension of the ongoing problems facing inflation of the United States dollar and food supply chains that became accentuated in 2022. For example, the same report from the Department of Agriculture shows that an avian influenza strain (HPAI) was responsible for a 32.2 percent increase in the price of eggs between 2021 and 2022.
In tandem with the lingering effects of decreased COVID-19 in-person dining options and the fallout of price fixing by meatpacking giants, these issues have forced restaurants to increase prices.
Michael Buchanan, the long-time owner of Souvlaki in downtown Blacksburg, said that while he does not like to raise prices, the increased food costs made it difficult to maintain the status quo. “All my stuff [ingredients] is going up as well. I mean, it’s probably going up easily 10%, if not a little bit more.”
The Cellar, a local Blacksburg restaurant also faced a rise in the price of supplies. In order to compensate for the rising costs, Michelle Gaudion, the front-of-house manager at the Cellar, said making up money in different ways, such as raising liquor prices and charging 25 cents for ranch dipping sauce, are some of the other ways the Cellar keeps food charges low.
Despite price changes, locally owned businesses in the Blacksburg area have sought to keep the food as accessible and affordable to patrons as possible.
Gaudion said a priority of the Cellar’s establishment is its connection with the Blacksburg community, and maintaining the food prices to ensure patrons know they can afford meals is one of the ways the restaurant keeps people coming back.
“Not a lot of our food prices really changed that drastically after the fact. We just relied on staying really busy and providing good service so people would keep coming here.”
More so than ever, relationships with community members are the striving point to keeping businesses afloat during inflationary periods.
Souvlaki has fostered those relationships as its special connections with both Blacksburg residents and new generations of Virginia Tech students incentivize patrons to make the spot a regular place to eat. “I try to keep my stuff low. It has increased a little bit, but I still think I probably have some of the best deals in town,” said Buchanan.
At the Cellar, the friendships that are formed between staff and patrons are longstanding and worth much more than money. When referring to a patron that comes to the bar daily, Gaudion said, “That’s like 10 years of my life… He’s a very close friend at this point and we have a lot of people like that and they definitely rely on seeing familiar faces.”
As for the future of food prices and the restaurant industry, the federal government promised to address supply chain back-ups, enforce antitrust laws on the meat and poultry industries and provide monetary relief to small businesses impacted by COVID-19. However, only time will tell whether these changes will result in long-term economic price reductions on food.
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