Al's Steakhouse: What's Worse, No Customers Or Having No Help?

JOLIET, IL — Dozens of Joliet area restaurants have been operating without enough staff for the past several weeks and that's created enormous challenges for people like George Daskalakis, the owner of Al's Steakhouse, 1990 West Jefferson St.

Al's Steakhouse is a Joliet landmark, a fine-dining institution since 1959. Even though Daskalakis prides himself on offering some of the best seafood and steak dishes in the entire Will County region, he has a large sign posted at the busy corner of Jefferson and Hammes Avenue alerting everyone he has several jobs available.

As of May 27, the owner of Al's Steakhouse told Joliet Patch he currently has 31 employees. Normally, he has 55 to 60 employees at this time of year, he said.

As the coronavirus pandemic rocked Illinois last year, Al's Steakhouse was constantly bouncing back and forth between being open and closing. Now, this year, as coronavirus cases are dropping substantially and thousands of people in the Joliet area are getting vaccinated, more and more people are wanting to dine out and eat at restaurants such as Al's Steakhouse.

The trouble is, for Al's Steakhouse to be hitting at all cylinders, Daskalakis needs another 24 to 29 employees, people who are willing to work, he said.

He understands he is not the only Joliet restaurant owner facing the current work shortage. Daskalakis has been in the food industry since 1982 and owner of Al's Steakhouse since 2005.

"The entire state and the entire country is looking for employees," he remarked during a recent interview with Joliet Patch. "Our entire state is looking for people and help."

The Al's Steakhouse owner said that a lot of people are choosing to stay home "and not look for employment because of the federal funding."

While driving in Joliet, Daskalakis said he recently saw a woman holding a "homeless" sign begging for money at the traffic light along Larkin Avenue. Daskalakis said he told her he could get her a job washing dishes at Al's Steakhouse to make money.

She scowled at him and remarked, "I don't wash dirty dishes," Daskalakis recalled.

If it were up to him, Daskalakis said he would like to see the state of Illinois start offering people bonuses as incentives to return to work rather than stay home and get unemployment for the rest of this summer.

The shortage of staff meant for a chaotic time at Al's Steakhouse leading up to Mother's Day, which is traditionally one of Al's busiest Sundays during the year. Al's typically needs to have seven employees in the kitchen as dishwashers, its owner said.

As the Mother's Day approached, Daskalakis wasn't sure he was going to have anybody on the work schedule to do dishes.

Then, just a couple of days before Mother's Day, he hired two people. Also, one of his long-time cooks scrambled and found two girls willing to wash dishes that Saturday and Sunday.

"So I had four," Daskalakis said.

Having four people available to do dishes was not ideal, but the Mother's Day dinner could have been a disaster if nobody was around to wash the dishes.

After being closed last year on Mother's Day because of the coronavirus, the owner Al's Steakhouse was not sure what kind of crowd to expect for May 9.

"We had a limited menu, and we did run out of a few items," he said. "It's unprecedented."

And that's what caused Daskalakis to ponder the biggest question on his mind nowadays: What's worse: having no customers, as was often the case last year because of the pandemic, or this year's biggest challenge: not having employees?"

As long as Al's Steakhouse remains down 40 percent to 50 percent of its optimum number of employees, "we cannot provide the standard and service that our customers expect," Daskalakis said.

The silver lining in all the chaos and difficulty during the past 16 months, Daskalakis said, is how wonderful the Joliet community has been toward Al's Steakhouse.

"The community has been so supportive, more than ever before, especially on Saturdays," he said. "I can't express the words. How can you not be touched by this? I'm very appreciative from that support. And look, I'm getting goosebumps."

And with a little luck, Daskalakis is hoping he can find more dependable help in the coming weeks.

With his dining business on the rise, it's crucial to get Al's Steakhouse back "to normal operations, 50 to 60 employees," he said. "I'm especially short on dishwashers. I'm $3 up from minimum wage right now. I'm $14 an hour for dishwashers right now."

And if any state politicians are listening, Daskalakis urges Illinois lawmakers to do what they can to help small businesses owners like himself, who are desperately trying to find enough employees to keep up with their customer's demands, whether that's in the restaurants, hair salons, doctor's offices or other service industry positions.

"We need incentives to motivate people to go back to work," he added.

For now, Al's opens 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Al's Steakhouse is also opening "for private events for lunch."

But for people wondering when Al's will resume opening the entire restaurant for a daily lunch crowd, the answer to that question remains in the numbers.

How long will it take for Al's Steakhouse to increase its work force from 31 employees back toward 55 to 60 employees?

"I'm already short-staffed," Daskalakis said.