Egg prices rattle DeKalb County restaurant owners

SYCAMORE – Soaring egg prices are affecting restaurant margins, menu prices and family grocery budgets in DeKalb County, but restaurateurs said this week that they’re trying not to pass rising costs on to their customers.

Thanks to market factors that largely stem from an outbreak of the avian flu in wild fowl that have infected domestic poultry and beef stocks across the country, the average cost of a dozen Grade A eggs in U.S. cities has more than doubled since August 2023, when the price of eggs was a record low $2.04, according to The Associated Press. Specialized eggs, including organic or cage-free, are even more expensive.

As of Friday, some DeKalb County grocers have put restrictions on how many can be purchased. Aldi, 2540 Sycamore Road, Sycamore, is limiting customers to two dozen eggs per store visit. Those eggs cost $5.97 per dozen – just as much as Walmart, where no signs indicated restrictions on egg purchases.

At Walmart, 2300 Sycamore Road, DeKalb, batches of 18 eggs were priced at $8.94 and three dozen eggs at $17.88.

Egg Haven Pancakes & Cafe, a breakfast restaurant known for its namesake ingredient, spent $7.20 per dozen on its most recent shipment of eggs.

Restaurant general manager Peter Pana said the business has had to take the rising cost on the chin.

“We just grin and bear it, so to speak, and just move on,” Pana said.

To do that, Pana said Egg Haven, 2562 Sycamore Road, DeKalb, has tapped into its cash reserves. That decision has allowed the restaurant to maintain its menu pricing while other name-brand restaurants such as Waffle House have taken to charging addition costs per egg used.

“We just had to dip into our reserves,” Pana said. “Our margins are quite thin. We don’t know how long this matter will be, and we’re just going to continue on until we see how long this will persist for.”

The fluctuating costs of ingredients is something Pana said he has learned to account for. He said sometimes a certain type of meat or produce item will jump in price, and he’ll have to find a way for the restaurant’s budget to accommodate.

As far as egg prices go, Pana said they’ve reached record highs.

“Egg prices have skyrocketed since November of last year,” Pana said. “Prior to that we were paying $3 and something cents, because we use double, extra large eggs. And they are the farm-fresh eggs, so we don’t cut any corners when it comes to that.”

Pana said the restaurant so far has not passed the extra expenses on to customers or employees.

“We just dip into our resources,” Pana said. “Our first dollar of revenue always goes to our people, our team, our employees, so to speak. And then the second one goes to our supplies and our menu. And we dip into our reserves is what we’ve done.”

Elsewhere at the Lincoln Inn at Faranda’s, 302 Grove St. in DeKalb, owner Bill McMahon said he imagines that he eventually will have to raise the price of eggs that come served in his restaurant.

“Ultimately, the consumer pays for all this,” McMahon said. “We haven’t raised our prices, but eventually we will raise our prices sometime, and then the new cost of doing business with eggs will be reflected in it.”

McMahon said there’s no substitutions for serving up eggs.

“They’re still a good source of protein,” he said. “It’s good food, but it is a different world. There’s not much I can do about it. You’re not going to do an omelet with something other than eggs.”

In the city’s downtown, Barb City Bagels owner Tim Hayes said the establishment’s top-selling item, the Egg’wich, has become significantly more expensive to make.

He said he is weighing the cost of adding an upcharge to the Egg’wich.

“We’re considering that,” Hayes said. “It’s just part of doing business.”

Hayes said prices have been ballooning on practically all the items used to keep the store at 118 E. Lincoln Highway running for years.

“We talked about egg prices going up, but pretty much everything that we buy for our store right now is twice as much as it was three years ago, two and a half years ago,” Hayes said. “We’re seeing the impact of the eggs, but we’re also feeling it for everything.”

Angelo Tsagalis, who has owned and operated the Sycamore Parkway Restaurant alongside two cousins since 1997, said the classic American diner is trying to adjust to the inflated egg prices. Parkway Restaurant offers breakfast menu items all day.

“It’s crazy,” Tsagalis said. “It’s about four or five times what we were paying five years ago. [It’s] one of those things we make a profit on, but now it just gets smaller.”

The restauranteur said he used to be able to purchase 30 dozen eggs for as low as $60. Now, he’s spending $250, or $8.33 per dozen, for that quantity.

Tsagalis said food prices at the restaurant, 605 E. State St., recently were raised as a result of Illinois legislators’ decision to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2025.

“It’s tough for everybody. I mean, I go to the grocery store and I see a dozen eggs for $8,” Tsagalis said. “I’m just dumbfounded. We had a pandemic, and now we have something like this.”

Tsagalis said the costs of beef and produce also have been on the rise. Between those and egg prices, he said, the restaurant business isn’t as profitable as it once was.

“We’re hanging in there,” Tsagalis said. “Are we making massive profits? No. We’re hanging in there. We’ll make something at the end of the month to make a living. That’s what we’re here for. If we’re not going to make money, what’s the point of having a business?”