Lucca Osteria & Bar opens its doors in Oak Brook Lucca Osteria & Bar in Oak Brook features a Tuscan cuisine prepared by chef Claudio Ulivieri of Burr Ridge. Courtesy of Nick & Amy Ulivieri Lucca s menu features a Brodetto di Pesce that includes mussels, shrimp, clams, calamari, fin fish broth and toasted garlic bread. Courtesy of Nick & Amy Ulivieri Lucca Osteria & Bar has taken over the former space of the Tuscany restaurant at 1415 W 22nd St. in Oak Brook. Courtesy of Nick & Amy Ulivieri Lucca Osteria & Bar has taken over the former space of the Tuscany restaurant at 1415 W 22nd St. in Oak Brook.
Jazz ShawPosted at 7:31 pm on April 6, 2021
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Business reopening as vaccination rates continue to climb and people going back to work is good news, right? Obviously, it is, assuming employers can find enough interested and qualified applicants to fill the openings. But CBS Chicago is reporting that the owners of bars and restaurants are increasingly having trouble making that happen. Multiple restaurant owners are reporting that their former employees were expected to be eager to return to getting a steady paycheck now that the vaccines are more widely available, but many of them are not interested. Some have left the industry altogether. And few new people are applying for these food and beverage service jobs. The owners are attributing this issue to a combination of big COVID relief or enhanced unemployment benefits and a dislike of the new rules imposed on them because of ongoing pandemic restrictions.
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Source: AP Photo/Lisa Rathke
A promising March jobs report showed that many of the 916,000 hired in the month were in the leisure and hospitality sector, thanks to the pace of Covid-19 vaccinations and many states finally reopening. But those in the restaurant industry are now up against another challenge. How can they compete with government benefits?
For one Chicago area restaurant, it’s proving to be difficult.
Steve Hartenstein says opening a new restaurant as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on is “exciting, scary and brutal.”
He is the Managing Partner of Lucca Osteria and Bar, which is aiming to welcome customers in Oakbrook in May. A huge part of that preparation is hiring. Still, with so many laid off during the worst of the pandemic, applications for the 100 jobs he’s filing are only trickling in.