MACON, Ga. — With prices going up and a worker shortage many restaurants are struggling to make ends meet. That includes Macon's Francar's.
They've been serving up wings for close to 30 years. But recently, they had to close their doors.
From turning down catering opportunities to staffing shortages Francar's has had to make the tough decision of closing down for the time being.
Carl Fambro is the owner of Francar's. Even though each month they were bringing in more revenue, Fambro says it still was not enough quick enough.
"When you own your own business you have to realize when enough is enough," he said.
His workers were making $10 dollars an hour.
"It's essentially, an unskilled job. If the customers come in and don't want to pay for that increase because higher wages equal a higher cost," Fambro said. "We still get people who walk out and say this is too much and they leave," he said.
And with food costs rising he's had to cut menu items.
"We took onion rings off, we took mushrooms off. We've taken, cheese bread and garlic cheese bread off," Fambro said.
For the last couple years customers couldn't dine in due to the staff shortage.
Fambro says customers want the full dining experience.
"They want someone to come to the table so they can have an interaction. But, there's no one to have an interaction with," he said.
He says he wants to keep the place open.
"I'm sure we are not going to get eight employees to work. Bottom line is I want to stay open. But, I'm not going to do stupid stuff," Fambro said.
That's why making this decision is so difficult.
"I think the wings are great. I think the sauce is great. But we got to have two: We've got to have the employees, we've got to have the customers to make it work," he said.
In the next week or so they'll make the decision on whether they can reopen.
If Francar's does open back up Fambro says they will have to do so with reduced hours.
He says he's also looking into a food truck.