Restaurant Industry Implosion: Jobs and Diners Scarce

There's a bracing, if unsurprising, report in today's Times dining section about the state of New York's restaurant industry, and the prognosis is quite bleak. With business down 10% to 30% by some estimates, NYC restaurant owners slashed more than 10,000 jobs between October 2008 and January 2009. And when a new position does open up, it's met with an avalanche of resumes from overqualified applicants, including unemployed Ph.D.s. Alexandra Raij of Txikito tapas bar in Chelsea says it used to be tough to find skilled cooks for her tiny kitchen; now "the situation is so desperate that cooks push résumés through the security gate late at night."

Jean Georges pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini says he's never received so many offers from experienced cooks to do unpaid internships in his kitchen. But chef Michael White (Alto, Convivio) doesn't have much sympathy for them: "Everybody’s on the edge, and I don’t need people hanging around my kitchen messing with the morale of the paid guys. Let them go to Italy, learn to make pasta, and wash their clothes in a bucket like I did for seven years." And Colin Alevras, the chef who ran the Tasting Room in the East Village for ten years, is now reduced to pouring wine at DB Bistro Moderne in Midtown; he tells the Times, "We have a family to support, so I was happy to accept the reduction in ego in exchange for stability."

Over at Serious Eats, Ed Levine hears, among other things, that private dining rooms, which often provide the real profit at upscale restaurants, are being reserved far less often. He predicts this will be the "silent killer for many celebrated restaurants." On the bright side, there are a lot of bargains being offered by desperate restaurants, and, as White puts it, "Now the cream will rise to the top."