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Every Sunday last year, Jared Zippin, Jack Murray and their friends would either pick up or get delivery from A La Mode, their favorite restaurant near Syracuse University.

“I got the Albakurkey turkey (sandwich) every time,” Zippin said. “If I went with a group of people, I’d get the Albakurkey turkey and they’d get a buffalo chicken panini, and we’d go halfsies.”

Lunch at A La Mode became tradition for Zippin, but just as the 2021-22 academic year began, his trips to A La Mode suddenly stopped. On Aug. 21, the restaurant suspended operations due to a staff shortage.

Originally opened as a Carvel Ice Cream in 1967, A La Mode has been serving both the local community and students of Syracuse University for over a decade. Co-owner Jeanne Catalfano bought the business in 2010.

Students and locals alike were concerned Catalfano would change the restaurant when she bought it in 2010, including one of its most beloved offerings — ice cream. A second grader even sent Catalfano a petition with 100 signatures to try to convince her to keep it. Although Catalfano never considered taking the ice cream away, the petition — which she still has — showed her just how much the restaurant meant to the community, she said.

Catalfano even kept the original tabletops of the restaurant, which were painted by students at the Westcott Community Center, and they are now mounted on the walls as decoration to make room for larger tables. It was important for her to keep the restaurant’s local feel, she said.

“I like preserving that small business feel: family-run, people-oriented,” Catalfano said. “I like that when people come in they know my manager really well, and she knows them and knows their name and their kids and their husband, their wife.”

The temporarily closed restaurant was beloved by SU students and Syracuse residents for its sandwiches and ice cream.
Courtesy of Jeanne Catalfano

Catalfano began working in the restaurant business in 2003 when she and her father opened The Deli Downtown in Cortland. After several successful years in Cortland, Catalfano and her father bought A La Mode in 2010 and gradually merged the previous owners’ menu with The Deli Downtown’s menu.

When the pandemic began in March 2020, A La Mode switched to takeout and curbside pickup, but it was hard for the restaurant to adjust to the loss of connection between the staff and its customers, Catalfano said.

“When we bought (A La Mode), it had a rich history, and people were coming into the store telling us that they were coming in as a kid with their grandparents,” Catalfano said.

For the first year of the pandemic, Catalfano said the restaurant didn’t deal with many staff issues. A La Mode, like many restaurants, relies heavily on part-time workers, especially students and other young people. The staff is usually cyclical — as college students take off in the summer, students who return to the Syracuse area for the summer take their spots, Catalfano said.

But in the spring of 2021, her workers began to steadily quit for different reasons, and Catalfano did not receive any applications to fill their positions. A La Mode’s usual daytime staff of seven was cut down to two. Catalfano said she advertised all over the area, but the only applications she received were for the night shift. On Aug. 21, A La Mode suspended operations.

“I was definitely taken aback because I thought that A La Mode was really popular within Syracuse,” Zippin said. “It was definitely sad. There’s no other sandwich place in my opinion that does what A La Mode does.”

Catalfano attributes the staff shortage to a multitude of issues. Food service positions are usually low growth, temporary, part-time work that young people use as stepping stones to other places. But with the federal government’s boosted unemployment program, Catalfano said she thinks many prospective applicants decided to go on unemployment instead of coming back to work.

And, Catalfano said, students’ workloads are heavier, meaning they can’t work in the restaurant and still have time to study. Due to A La Mode’s status as a small business, it can’t offer some of the benefits large corporations can, such as child care for employees.

Although Murray and Zippin both agreed that increasing pay is the key to securing more employees, Catalfano disagreed.

“We can offer people tons and tons of money and that’s not it. That’s not motivating people to come back to work,” Catalfano said.

A La Mode is currently holding open interviews and hopes to reopen in October, Catalfano said. Its only obstacle to reopening is staff shortage. As soon as the restaurant returns, it’ll be sure to welcome back crowds of hungry students and locals alike.

“It’s a staple in the community,” said Murray.

Published on October 4, 2021 at 1:54 am

Contact Connor: cpignate@syr.edu