A downtown staple for 13 years, Padmanadi Vegetarian Restaurant was forced to cut one of its most popular dishes in order to keep up with the rising cost of produce.
“We do black bean sauce now instead of breaded cauliflower bites,” said Maya Paramitha with Padmanadi.
“By December, when cauliflower hit $6, I [thought] I can’t serve this anymore,” she recalled.
The family-owned restaurant is stocked with produce – something they said is becoming unaffordable.
“It hits about $3 per pound for most of the things, where it used to be about $1.25 or $1.50 per pound,” Paramitha said.
“It’s double and we can’t double our price.”
Skyrocketing produce prices are being blamed on the ongoing drought in California and the sinking Canadian dollar.
According to Statistics Canada, the 3.7 per cent increase in the cost of food has helped fuel the 1.6 per cent increase in the annual inflation rate in December.
“The average Canadian family [will] have to spend $345 more on food [in 2016] compared to 2015…and we are sticking to that forecast, so that equates to about a dollar a day,” said Sylvain Charlebois with Guelph University Food Distribution.
Despite the gloomy prediction, Paramitha is hoping the summer months provide more local buying options so the menu can stay the same.
With files from Breanna Karstens-Smith
