Eggs-tra 50 cents? LI eateries add fees, mull other options to offset rising costs

Soaring egg prices have caused some local eateries to add surcharges, run specials on non-egg items and take other temporary steps to offset their rising costs.

Like diner chain Waffle House, which announced Monday that it was enacting a surcharge of 50 cents per egg, The Better Bagel in Amityville on Monday also added a temporary 50-cent surcharge to sandwiches that include eggs.

“We had to do it. We really didn’t want to. It just wasn’t sustainable anymore,” said Christina Walberg, who co-owns the bagel shop with her husband, Manny Kourounis.

Waffle House, which has more than 1,900 locations in 25 states but none in New York State, said its price hike was tied to "the unprecedented rise in egg prices."

“While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived, we cannot predict how long this shortage will last. We are continuously monitoring egg prices and will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow,” the Norcross, Georgia-based chain said in an emailed statement.

These days, restaurant owners are often “between a rock and a hard place” with trying to maintain profitability, retain customers and pay for steeply rising insurance, utility and food costs, said Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, a trade group based in Albany.

Shortage due to bird flu

Rising egg prices are tied to an outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, which started in 2022 and has reduced the number of egg-laying birds, causing an egg shortage. Retail prices for a dozen eggs have soared to $8, $9 or higher in grocery stores on Long Island, where wholesale prices have tripled or quadrupled.

The egg shortage has been exacerbated by customers panic-buying eggs in grocery stores, retail experts said. Some retailers, including Lidl, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club, have responded by limiting the amount of eggs that customers can buy at one time.

As of Friday, the wholesale price on the New York market for a dozen large eggs was $7.63, nearly three times as much as the price a year earlier, $2.64, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Across the country, the average retail price of a dozen Grade A large eggs was $4.15 in December, up 65% from the price a year earlier, $2.51, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But prices in December were still below their peak of $4.82 in January 2023. Last month’s average retail egg price will be announced by the bureau Feb. 12.

Egg prices are expected to increase 20.3% this year, according to the USDA.

'Where's the value?'

Not only are some restaurant operators with egg-heavy menus adding surcharges, but some also are attempting to entice customers to try menu items that require fewer eggs.

Lessing’s Hospitality Group in Great River used 130,824 eggs last month at its 104 food and beverage locations in Florida and New York, said Peter Lessing, senior director of procurement at the company. Lessing’s owns nine restaurants on Long Island, including brunch eatery Hatch in Huntington and Library Café in Farmingdale, as well as The Bethpage Public House, a country club.

Instead of raising the menu prices of eggs, Lessing’s is running specials on pancakes and waffles at some of its restaurants to entice customers to purchase menu items that reduce the number of eggs the eateries are using, he said.

“If you raise the prices of the eggs, you know, customers will say, ‘Where’s the value?’ ” said Lessing, adding the restaurants also have shifted to egg-free coatings and batters for cooking some foods.

The egg shortage has made price negotiations with wholesalers more difficult, he said.

“And we used to be able to hold a [steady] price for … two months. Now, they’re not holding for a week,” he said.

Even though customers are well aware that egg prices are rising, restaurateurs may face backlash for notifying patrons of the surcharges instead of just making regular menu price hikes, Fleischut said.

“In the past, we’ve seen pushback from consumers against surcharges, saying, ‘Just adjust your prices and we’ll decide whether we’ll pay it or not,’ ” she said.

Other options restaurateurs consider for cutting costs include reducing food portion sizes and removing some side items from entrees, she said.

Farmingdale Diner uses about 7,000 eggs a week for omelets, French toast, pancakes, cakes and bread coating for frying food, said Harry Savides, manager and co-owner.

For a case of 30 dozen eggs, the diner now spends about $220, up from $65 a year ago, said Savides, who said the diner is trying to wait out the price hikes.

“If prices do not come down, we’re going to have to increase our [menu] prices for sure,” he said.

The Olympic Diner in Deer Park switched to brown eggs about six weeks ago because they were cheaper but now that’s not an option, since large restaurant franchises with more buying power scooped those up, co-owner Dawn Piscitelli said.

The diner isn’t going to raise prices, but it might consider other egg options, she said.

“If eggs keep going up … we may have to do liquid” eggs, she said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.