Eggstra, Eggstra! Read All About How Latest Shortage Affects Consumers, Restaurants
By TOM WOOD / February 1, 2023
That’s my punny headline for my latest Ledger story about the egg shortage crisis is affecting Tennesseans, both consumers and those in the restaurant industry. Punny headline but not a laughing matter.
Avian flu has killed millions and millions of shortages and the prices have gone up at grocery stores and restaurants, which have seen their prices triple. They buy and go through cases of eggs by the dozens, and it’s cutting into their profit margin as they try not to pass all the costs to customers.
“Well, it seems very, very hard because the prices as we know them, they have been increasing a lot. Six months ago, we used to buy a case of 15 dozen (cage-free) shell eggs for $30. Now they cost $97,” Midtown Cafe Chef Max Pastor says in the January 27 edition of the Nashville Ledger.
Grocery stores have been in short supply of eggs and customers are paying more.
–Ledger cover by Mike Hopey
Craig Clifft, general manager at Nashville’s famed Elliston Place Soda Shop, explains how prices jumped over a year’s time for restaurants.
“If you rewind back a year, we were paying somewhere in the neighborhood of about $30 to $35 a case. And when I looked at the pricing (Jan. 17), it was anywhere between $75 and $98 a case, typically being a lot closer to that $100 mark,” says Clifft.
It’s a trending story that everyone is talking about and a problem that could get worse before it improves.
Developers Focus on Belle Meade Plaza
By TOM WOOD / JANUARY 23, 2023
If you’ve been in downtown Nashville the last couple of years, you’ve certainly noticed Music City’s vertical growth. High-rises, towers and cranes are everywhere, changing the city’s skyline.
Suburban neighborhoods have seen similar growth and changes, though perhaps not as towering. That could soon change on the outskirts of Belle Meade, Nashville’s wealthiest enclave.
For the January 20 edition of the Nashville Ledger, I write how developers want to replace Belle Meade Plaza, which opened in 1961, with a mammoth mixed-use project that would include condominiums. rental units, a boutique hotel and 60,000 square feet of retail.
Developers’ plans for Belle Meade met with optimism, skepticism.
–Ledger cover by Mike Hopey
There would also be a dog park and plenty of green space. Green roofs, terraces and pools would top the towers. The plan also includes restoration of Richland and Sugartree creeks.