Restaurants feel the hurt from rising egg costs

GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio (WCMH) -- What do ramen noodles and cookies have in common? They both share a key ingredient that's costing more and more at the grocery store.

Eggs are a staple for families nationwide -- but they're also necessary for restaurants and bakeries to turn a profit.

“One batch of cookies takes about 30 eggs. And we go through a lot of batches each week so it’s a lot of eggs — we have a cooler just dedicated to eggs,” said Hunter Gordon, general manager of Lion Cub's Cookies in Grandview Heights.

Gordon said the bakery has carefully watched egg prices as they churn out cookies.

John Barker, President and CEO of the Ohio Restaurant Association, said the avian flu is why egg prices are up -- the industry needs to replenish the flock.

This time last year, a dozen eggs would run you $1.75, Barker said. Right now, cartons go for $4 or $5.

“Some businesses might be able to make a change to a certain type of ingredient that they’re using — they might change their menu a little bit,” Barker said said when talking about adjusting to the increase.

For Leon Zhu, owner of Kyushu Ramen Noodle Bar on Fifth avenue, that's a tough ask.

“Every dish that we prepare, it does require the eggs in there and there’s no way for us to cut it," Zhu said.

Each bowl of ramen has an egg in it, and so do the noodles.

“I think price will come down sooner or later," Zhu said. "All we gotta do is hang in there and just work with it."

Zhu and Gordon said they’re hoping to see costs head down soon. But Barker said he expects it to be some time until egg prices begin to drop.

“Our best view of this right now is summertime is that this could go on through spring and summer in terms of the pressure on the availability of eggs and then the prices will come back down,” said Barker.