Behind every restaurant meal is difficult math

In the span of three days, Morganton lost two barbecue restaurants and gained another.

Butch’s BBQ & Breakfast closed Tuesday after 25 years. Boulevard Barbeque closed Monday after six years. On Wednesday, The Honey Hog opened on Carbon City Road.

The changing dining landscape is a reminder that even beloved local restaurants, deeply woven into the life of a community, operate in one of the most financially unforgiving corners of the economy.

Restaurants are often more than places to get a meal. They become part of our comforts, our routine. Families celebrate birthdays over dinner. Friends catch up over coffee. Coworkers unwind after a long week. Parents bring children to the same restaurant they visited when they were young.

That loyalty does not always depend on polished decor or fashionable surroundings. Some of the most beloved restaurants have worn booths, mismatched chairs, and dated decor. People keep returning because the food is dependable, the welcome feels genuine, and the place has accumulated meaning.

So, when a dining spot closes, it can feel like losing a friend.

Diners see the finished product, but behind that meal is a business balancing food, labor, rent, utilities, equipment, insurance, marketing, regulations, and unpredictable customer traffic.

Then there is the inventory. A hardware store can keep a hammer on the shelf until someone buys it. A restaurant cannot hold meat, vegetables, and dairy indefinitely while waiting for business to improve. It must order enough food to serve customers without buying so much that part of its investment ends up in the trash.

A restaurant schedules employees without knowing how many people will walk through the door. Too few workers mean customers get poor service or wait a long time for their orders to arrive. Too many workers and the day’s expenses could outweigh the dollars brought in.

Finding and keeping workers is itself a constant undertaking. Go to any restaurant in Burke County, and you are likely to see “Help Wanted” or “Now Hiring” signs for every position from the hostess stand to the kitchen.

The North Carolina Department of Commerce estimates 84,600 openings each year in food preparation and serving occupations through 2034, more than in any other occupational group. Most will result not from newly created jobs but from backfilling open positions when workers leave the occupation and move into other fields.

That means many restaurant owners are perpetually recruiting, training, and rebuilding their teams.

At the same time, Americans have grown increasingly dependent on food prepared outside the home. In 1970, such food accounted for about 26% of all U.S. food spending. In 2025, it accounted for more than 56%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, the National Restaurant Association said the median full-service restaurant recorded a pretax profit of just 2.8% of sales in 2024, 4% for limited-service restaurants.

The margins leave little room for error.

Owners can raise menu prices, but only

so far. Customers are already dealing with higher grocery, housing, utility, and insurance costs of their own.

Boulevard owner Michael Samolinski summarized that reality plainly: “The math stopped working in our favor.”

No amount of affection for a business can overcome the math forever.

Still, some closures run deeper than a business decision. Neighbors lose jobs, a nearby farm or suppliers lose customers. And business owners invested money, time, and a large share of their lives in the community.

As The Honey Hog begins its run, we hope it succeeds. We also recognize what Butch’s and Boulevard contributed while their doors were open.

A meal may be eaten in 20 minutes. Building the business, loyalty, and community takes a lot longer. The profit-and-loss statement may determine whether a restaurant survives, but it cannot fully measure what it means to a community.