DES MOINES, Iowa — With thousands of people in town for the high school state wrestling tournament, they all need somewhere to eat.
Josh Holderness, one of the owners of Gusto Pizza, said he welcomes the crowds.
"These tournaments certainly bring a lot of people to Des Moines and a lot of diners, and this will be one of the first big tests that we've had," Holderness said.
Currently, his restaurant has a little over two-thirds of the workers it really needs. While Holderness said he recently started receiving more applications, the day-to-day work can be tough.
"We don't want to go down that road and anticipate longer wait times, but I think people could probably expect that... as they go out and about downtown," he said.
Holderness said even though he's short-staffed, he won't be suffering as much as some other restaurants that are experiencing worse staffing issues.
Jessica Dunker, the CEO of Iowa Restaurant Association, said this is a problem that's persisted for a while now.
"Our latest data shows that 80% of restaurants across the state are down to 20 to 25% of the number employees they really need," Dunker said.
She said this will impact wrestlers and their families this week, but also other families coming in town for basketball tournaments in the coming weeks.
"You might walk in and see an empty table and there's nobody to seat you and nobody to serve you," Dunker said. "So they choose not to have you seated because they want to ensure that you have the quality experience once you do get a place to come in and place an order."
Even though downtown restaurants could see longer wait times, Dunker they could also see a 15-50% increase in revenue from the out-of-towners.
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