The effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and staffing shortages result in the closures of some downtown restaurants

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

After the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened staffing issues in the hospitality industry, some long-time downtown restaurants are closing.

After 12 years, La Siesta will close its downtown location Wednesday and the biggest reason why is not having enough staff to keep up with the increase in business.

Co-owner Francisco Guillen said most of the time it's been one person doing the jobs of two to three people at a time. "In a short time frame, it can be a really, really big load," Guillen said.

Guillen also said there's also not a lot of people who don’t want to work for minimum wage even if they don’t have any experience.

The La Siesta location on Rangeline will stay open, but Gullien said over the past decade they have made strong relationships with students downtown.

"We've seen a lot of students come in through all four years of college, and even some grad students, they've come back, we've been to weddings," Gullien said.

Gullien also said he and his brother aren't ruling out the idea of opening another downtown restaurant in the future.

After 32 years in the downtown area, the owners of the International Cafe announced that they are retiring and closing the restaurant at the end of 2021.

Owners Elizabeth Hernandez-Gumati and Mohamed Gumati said as they were already thinking about retirement, but the struggles of the pandemic convinced them to do so.

"It's hard to find the things that we used to have. We don't have the delivery that we used to have because the guy had to close because it didn't have any drivers," Elizabeth said.

Delivery services like DoorDash also had negative effects on International Cafe because employees wanted more flexible hours and pay. The cafe said for months it would hire employees and lose them just a few weeks later.

With the lack of staff, the Gumati's said the restaurant has become a 24-hour priority to them. "We used to have a big help but I'm telling you that's before the virus," Mohamed said.

In November, another decade-long downtown restaurant closed Coley's American Bistro.

According to a Facebook post from Coley's, the closure is due to staff wanting to spend more time with their family. The post also says that throughout the pandemic, the restaurant has been strongly supported by the community and the last year has been the busiest one on the books.