The Covered Bridge Café in Stayton typically serves 200-300 eggs on an average Saturday morning and 2,500 plus eggs in a week.
“Eggs for a breakfast place are like alcohol for a bar,” owner, Cari Sessums, explained. “It’s really huge.”
So, when her vendor broke the news on Jan. 15 that – due to a national egg shortage caused by an ongoing outbreak of bird flu – egg prices were not only increasing from $41 a case to $151, but those cases were going to be severely limited.
“We’ve dealt with the price going up and down before,” Sessums said. “But to be told, ‘We don’t know if we can get those eggs to you’…”
The news forced Sessums to create a plan.
“We cut portions to one egg,” she said. “We’re not selling sides of eggs, and I took the boiled egg out of the salad.”
She also began using liquid eggs – eggs that are already broken out of the shell and whisked together – a product she typically eschews.
“It’s really against our values,” she said.
But apart from printing new menus and raising prices – actions she is loath to do – she saw no other alternative.
“A customer has a connection with Willamette Egg Farms,” she said. “And I called Wilsonville Sysco, but they’re getting 200 cases of eggs today and they have a lot of area to cover.”
Which is one reason The Covered Bridge Café is suffering from the shortage more than some other restaurants.
“We’re smaller,” Sessums said, describing a supply chain, which often provides resources to larger entities first.
Even when Sessums does gain access to those difficult to access commodities, the increased costs are harder for her business to absorb.
“With all the other costs, to have the cheapest item – the one that gives you the space to price at a certain level – increase… Eggs are more expensive than a piece of bacon.”
The double whammy has been confusing for many of The Covered Bridge Café’s customers who, when given the news that their breakfast or omelet would be short of an egg, expect also to receive a discount.
“But I can’t discount a dollar,” Sessums said. “Because I’m already down a dollar and I’ve got other costs – payroll and facilities.”
Instead, Sessums is asking for the continued understanding of her customers as she and her staff navigate this difficult time.
“Let’s remember, it’s not anything we’re doing,” she said. “There’s only so much we can do in-house right now.”
Because until the outbreak of bird flu is under control and a new generation of hens starts laying, the egg shortage will continue.
“Grow up chickens,” Sessums pleaded. “Grow up.”
