By Joan Lynch | Sacramento Bee
One of Arroyo Grande’s oldest dining establishments is facing closure as a result of economic strain and the rising cost of some of the most essential parts of breakfast.
The Village Cafe has served its loyal customers breakfast and lunch every day at its home on Branch Street since 1968, but it may soon be forced to close as some of its most popular items bacon and eggs continue to skyrocket in price.
Tammi Price, who’s worked at the cafe for 25 years and owned the business for the past 16 years, told The Tribune reductions in available parking in Arroyo Grande’s Village, combined with the inflation of the past four years, has tested the diner unlike any other time in its long history.
In April of last year, Price could get a case of 15 dozen eggs for around $34, she said.
By August, that price had spiked to around $80, and in recent weeks the price has fluctuated between $130 and $150, Price said.
“It went up little by little at first to where it was almost like dipping you into warm water and letting it slowly start to boil, and then it just gouged us,” Price said.
Inflation exacts heavy price on Arroyo Grande cafe’s breakfast staples
Price said COVID-19 was the first thing to make a significant dent in the cafe’s finances.
While the lockdown and social distancing measures were difficult to navigate as an in-person, old-school restaurant, Price said the implementation of the K-rail concrete barriers along Branch Street that expanded the amount of outdoor dining space were initially a crucial part of keeping business going.
A handful of barriers stayed in place after the worst of the pandemic, continuing to take up chunks of the on-street parking along the Village corridor, Price said.
Though there are some free parking lots behind several of the businesses on both sides of Branch Street, Price said the introduction of more private parking nearby and barrier dining space has slowed some of the foot traffic through her door.
“I have elderly customers that could not park anywhere but out front, and they would say, ‘Hey, if I drive by and there’s not a place for me out front, I can’t stop,’ because they cannot park in the public parking down the way,” Price said.
However, the economic pressures facing the Village Cafe are most evident in the cost of simple ingredients, Price said.
Bacon, one of the most commonly-ordered sides, has tripled in price since the start of 2024, when 2018’s Proposition 12 went into effect, Price said.
The Farm Animal Confinement Initiative required that any pork sold in the state must come from a farm that allows breeding pigs at least 24 square feet of room including the Iowa provider Price used to rely on, which was cheaper than buying from farms in California.
Faced with the decision between ordering a cheaper, perhaps worse bacon from her distributor and paying more for bacon of the same quality she’s usually served, Price said she chose to pay up and raise her menu prices accordingly.
“I don’t want to serve bad bacon, right? Why do I want to, like, cut the quality and serve bad food? Because I know my customers don’t want to go out to eat and eat bad food,” she said.
In some case, that’s meant cutting back on certain ingredients entirely; blackberry jelly, which cost Price twice as much as strawberry jelly, is no longer on the menu, while the Heinz ketchup served in glass bottles at the table has been swapped in for a more generic brand, she said.
Price said she’s mindful of the fact that her customers won’t pay more for less or worse food and has tried to raise her prices as little as possible.
Can Village Cafe weather the storm?
Price said she’s been pleasantly surprised by an increase in customers in the past day or two, which coincided with a Tuesday Facebook post notifying the cafe’s followers of the hardships the business faces.
She said she’s hopeful that longtime customers will stop by to support the business, particularly while inflation forces the higher pricing, but acknowledged that her bills might outpace the cafe sooner rather than later.
But for right now, things could be looking up.
“If we have more days like today, hey, we’ll be back and flowing,” Price said.