You just can’t get good help anymore.
Actually, you can’t get any help in this brave new pandemic world.
That’s what the Pascarella Brothers are saying. They are closing their Morristown sandwich shop on Oct. 23, 2021, to consolidate the business at their Chatham location.
“It was a tough decision,” Gino Pascarella said on Monday. “We just couldn’t find enough staff.”
He said he and his brother Anthony have operated their South Street shop for close to a decade, Gino said. They started in Chatham. That Watchung Avenue venue is adding seating and a private party room with a 50-person capacity.
The brothers have specialized in gluten-free foods, recorded cooking videos, and catered for governors, the New York Jets and many others.
They switched to curbside pickup immediately during the March 2020 lockdowns, and secured some federal relief aid, Gino said.
Active in pandemic programs to feed the underprivileged in Greater Morristown, the brothers will continue participating, Gino said.
As is typical these days someone has to make every news story about race. A deli closed. Somehow it has something to do with the owners not hiring black workers. In certain people’s troubled minds.
The disconnect between business owners, employees, and customers is that customers want business owners to pay their employees more without raising the prices. This is an impossibility since businesses have no revenue source but their customers.
If businesses pay employees more and charge customers more, customers think they are being “greedy” and stop patronizing them. If they do not pay them more, customers still think they are being “greedy” and criticize them. Business owners are in a no win position in this matter.
Was outreach made to the “Second Ward”? No disrespect to these fine people but in my 32 years in Morristown I have almost never had a Black person bring me my food in any establishment. Banks, drug stores and supermarkets seem to be the only places that hire Black people. Just saying.
Pascarella has been my go-to since they opened. Very good food and I’m sad to see them leaving. But Morristown still has Longfellows and Millburn deli. The quality of the other town delis falls off after that.
YES minimum wage would be a total insult to inexperienced first job people. No worries-with my Build Back Better plan-everything is free anyway.
How much were they offering to pay? I hope not the minimum wage.
I’m so sorry to hear this. We’ve enjoyed many wonderful lunches from Pascarellas. Hope there may be another alternative.