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Restaurants facing after-effects of pandemic struggling to survive

Rising costs of food and fuel and an ongoing worker shortage have made it difficult for restaurants to keep their doors open.

SOUTHINGTON, Conn. — For more than a decade, Zingarella in Southington has welcomed people through its doors. But next month, the doors will close for good.

"We’ve come here for quite a few years and it’s always I don’t know it’s like home," said Darryl Fasulo of Southington.

"It’s going to be so sad to see them gone," said Cindy Fasulo of Southington. 

The lingering effects the pandemic has had on the restaurant industry as a whole have made it difficult to survive.

"The inflation, food costs, price of fuel effects delivery and accessibility to our food," said Mark Zommer, owner of Zingarella. "I think staffing is the most important and has been the biggest hurdle for every restaurant. So many restaurant workers left before COVID and never returned to the industry," he said.

It’s being felt by restaurants around the state.

"We’re still in a workers shortage as an industry. We’re still about 22,000 jobs short of where we were in February of 2020," said Scott Dolch, president and CEO of the Connecticut Restaurant Association.

In addition to rising food and fuel costs it’s now getting more expensive for restaurants to keep the workers they do have.

"Those restaurants out there like myself that have qualified people it’s costing more to keep them because so many restaurants are desperate for workers," Zommer said.

A growing list of restaurants announcing their closures is a sign of the struggles local businesses are facing.

The Half Door in Hartford will mark its last day on Jan. 23, and J’s Crab Shack in Hartford has already closed its doors.

"Our restaurants have been reeling probably for the last four to six months and having to work harder than they ever have to survive," Dolch said.

Some things have never gone back to how they were before the pandemic.

"People aren’t dining out as much and it’s beginning to show," Zommer said.

The CT Restaurant Association encourages people to support their local restaurants as much as they can whether it’s take-out or dining in and to be patient with them.

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