America’s restaurants are struggling. The solution? Close for summer break

HOUSTON — In 15 years in the restaurant industry, Nia Rayo had never had a real vacation. 

Even when her mother died in 2023, Rayo raced to a waitressing shift after the funeral. Her then-employer gave her the option to take the month off, but she knew it wasn’t feasible. For industry workers, taking a break meant going unpaid. 

“What would I do?” she asked. “Be broke?”

When her current employer, the award-winning Asian American diner, Agnes and Sherman, told staff that the restaurant would close for a one-week summer break during which employees would be paid for six days, Rayo was shocked. 

“I felt a lot of gratitude. I felt lucky,” she said. 

Her colleagues had similar reactions.

“Every other place that I’ve worked at, [this] did not exist,” said David Perez, the restaurant’s assistant general manager and beverage director.

“Honestly, I could’ve cried,” said Beth Sharpe, a line cook who formerly worked in retail. 

State of the industry

At just over a year in service, Agnes and Sherman has hit milestones faster than its co-owners Nick Wong and Lisa Lee dared to dream. The diner has earned nominations from the James Beard Foundation, recognition from the Michelin Guide, and was recently named in Bon Appétit’s “Best New Restaurants” list. But for Wong and Lee — college friends turned business partners turned fiancés — success also means being able to take a break.

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When the duo decided to open the business, they made sure to include incentives rarely seen in the service industry: Paid time off, health insurance and a partially paid winter and summer break, allowing staff and owners time to rest and recalibrate. The owners scheduled their breaks in January and August, during the restaurant’s slowest foot traffic and revenue months.

“We built it into our financial projections,” Lee told Straight Arrow. 

Wong still remembers crunching the numbers more than a year ago as they made the decision.

“Do we have to optimize all 52 weeks of the year?” he asked then. “Can we just optimize 50 weeks of the year?”

Though paid breaks are few and far between in the restaurant industry, some independent operators around the country have leaned into the idea, scheduling vacations during down periods. Fine dining establishments with seasonal menus, Wong said, tend to take breaks between menu changes and research-and-development periods, while more casual dining spots often stay open to meet their revenue goals. 

For years, Philadelphia restaurant Vernick Food & Drink has adopted two seasonal breaks, lovingly dubbed the “Vernickation,” while this year alone, 14 restaurants in Phoenix, Arizona, closed for summer break. In New York, restaurateurs Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra close their three restaurants, Contra, Wildair and Una Pizza Napoletana, thrice during the year. 

Closing is a decision that comes at a cost, given the razor-thin margins restaurants operate under, said Jonathan Horowitz, CEO of Convive Hospitality Consulting, a Houston-based restaurant consulting group. The average profit margin for restaurants hovers between 3% and 5%, though typically, “healthy” businesses exceed 9%.

“We are still seeing economic pressures from increased costs, and that’s across the board: Rent, labor, food costs, insurance,” Horowitz told Straight Arrow. Customers’ needs are also a confounding variable, he adds, with money-conscious diners growing more selective with dining experiences. Take into account that restaurant closings have headlined newspapers across the country, and it paints a rather pessimistic picture: Running a restaurant “always has been and remains very difficult.” Horowitz said.

Pulling back the curtain

A graduate of the French Culinary Institute, Wong is no stranger to the pressures of a working kitchen. He spent years building his career in the culinary underbelly of New York City, working long hours for the acclaimed Momofuku Restaurant Group. On occasion, he staged at the Michelin-starred Noma in Copenhagen, often regarded as the world’s best restaurant  — and not without controversy. In early 2026, a New York Times report uncovered allegations of workplace abuse against Noma’s executive chef and co-founder René Redzepi by multiple staff members, including instances of verbal and physical assault. 

Yet, workplaces rife with abusive behaviors are commonplace in the industry, where kitchens follow the brigade de cuisine system, a French military-inspired hierarchy with strictly delineated roles. In recent years, popular culture has shed more light on the behind-the-scenes of dinner service, pulling back the curtain on the oft-glamorized role of “chef.” Hits like Anthony Bourdain’s memoir and TV shows “The Bear” and “Hell’s Kitchen” revealed to audiences (and diners) the reality of a haute cuisine kitchen: crushing pressure, seemingly endless hours and abusive bosses.

“That’s how I came up and I really made it a point [that] this is not how I want to be,” said Wong. During the early years of his career, he made a promise to himself: “When I grow up, I want to be better than these people that have terrorized me.”

Why is working in a restaurant so stressful?

According to licensed psychologist and University of Houston professor Dr. John Vincent, the stress of a restaurant job is multifold, largely due to the complex nature of the business. At its core, a restaurant must “deliver consistently, every day” to maintain a reputation for high-quality products among consumers, Vincent said. The public pressure to keep customers happy is a major source of stress, but before and after the meal, problems continue. Long hours, staffing and supply chain challenges compound stress, while financial pressure applies the squeeze. 

“The profit margins are often not very great,” Vincent told Straight Arrow. “It takes a lot of moving parts to make sure that these entities actually not just work, but actually thrive.” 

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For hospitality workers, the stress can be inescapable. Mental health issues like depression, anxiety, addiction, substance abuse and burnout run rampant. A 2021 study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that 60% of restaurant servers have at least one mental health problem, reported US Foods, while the average turnover rate for restaurant staff hovers at 75%.

At the industry’s worst, suicide cases are a growing statistic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that in 2021, suicide rates for service industry professionals reached 34.6 per 100,000 men and 11.3 per 100,000 women. Male chefs in the industry are the most likely to commit suicide, with rates reaching 66.5 per 100,000 men — more than double the rate for men across all industries, which is 32.0 per 100,000. For women, the national rate is 8.0 per 100,000.

Bridging the gap

“[Industry workers] are having to face a lot in their communities, in the environment, and then go to work and be expected to leave it at the door,” says Catarina Bill, chief mission officer at Southern Smoke Foundation, a Texas-based nonprofit focused on providing mental health resources, like free counseling sessions and emergency funds, to service industry workers.

Compounded stressors and no time, she adds, have exacerbated symptoms like burnout, and health insurance benefits are a luxury that most hospitality workers don’t have, creating a barrier to costly treatments like therapy and counseling. 

To bridge the gap, Southern Smoke hosts two growing programs in multiple states, including an emergency fund for surprise expenses — covering everything from popped tires to rent assistance — and “Behind You,” a free counseling program for service workers named after a common kitchen call-out. To date, Southern Smoke has distributed more than $16 million and provided over 12,000 counseling sessions. Beyond medical treatment, Bill and Vincent note that scheduled breaks are just one of the few ways to cope with job-related stress.

“The likelihood of burnout is incredibly high and when that happens, people just end up with their capacity to cope being exceeded,” Vincent said.“Taking a break is a good thing.” 

Given the operating constraints that restaurants face, not every establishment can adopt vacation models like Agnes and Sherman. But Bill said she hopes the industry takes note, suggesting alternatives like flex hours. 

“It’s going to open up conversation,” she says.

And for consultants like Horowitz, choosing to rest suggests a different kind of return on investment. 

“The restaurant owner and operator recognizes the importance of taking a break for other reasons, whether that’s just a reset…taking some well-deserved vacation time with family, or mental health,” he said.

During the weeklong closure, the Agnes and Sherman staff reveled in their free time. Rayo spent the week with family and took her first international solo trip, exploring Mexico City. Perez attended to his family as his father recovered from surgery, while Wong and Lee sought refuge in horseback riding and culinary adventures in Tennessee. 

For Sharpe, the line cook, her break was full of summertime shenanigans and blockbuster viewings with her husband and two kids, squeezing in some much-needed family bonding. 

“It was the first time in a long time,” Sharpe said, smiling.

It was well worth the cost, said Wong and Lee. When staff returned to Agnes and Sherman after the break, Lee noticed a new buzz and synergy in the restaurant, much like returning to school. 

“Everybody’s really excited to see each other,” Lee told Straight Arrow. “Everybody feels a little bit more refreshed.” 

And while revenue, margins and finances are still part of the daily struggle at the restaurant, Wong and Lee know that some things, like their employees’ well-being, are priceless. 

“We have figured out our priorities,” Lee said.

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