Bay Area cafe spends $4,000 a month on eggs, adds surcharge for customers

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - More restaurants are starting to charge extra for dishes, because of the egg shortage and rising costs due to the bird flu.

Mac's Deli and Café in Santa Rosa will now charge $2 more for dishes with eggs.

Manager Tatum Soltani said so far, she hasn't heard any complaints about the new surcharge, saying most customers understand the egg shortage is affecting everyone.

"Eggs are really important," she said. "We go through a lot of eggs. They're usually $46 a case, and right now they're $146 a case. So we're spending about $4,000 on eggs alone every month. But we use a lot of eggs. I mean, that's why people come here for breakfast a lot."

Servers say the egg shortage and subsequent surcharge so far hasn't hurt business for the restaurant.

Right now, a dozen eggs cost nearly $10, up one dollar in just the past week.

Meanwhile, in nearby Petaluma, once considered the egg basket of the world, is now struggling to keep its legacy alive amid the bird flu outbreak, the East Bay Times reported. 

In the early 1900s, Petaluma produced more than half a billion eggs a year and shipped them across the United States.

Today, this North Bay city only has two retail egg producers left.

When the most recent bird flu outbreak hit in 2022, more than 23 million birds in the state were euthanized.

Hundreds of thousands of birds in Petaluma were put down as a result.

Now, egg farms in the city are investing millions of dollars in equipment to fight the outbreak, and keep their businesses open.