Co-owner Stephen Slaughter said that about 90% of its dishes depend on eggs, ticking off a short list: “Our French toast, our pancake batters, our hollandaise sauce, obviously eggs and omelets.” So when his vendors started charging $8 for a dozen eggs, all six Green Egg Cafe locations felt the pinch.
Amy Smith, an economist with the consulting group Advanced Economics Solutions, said the median price increase for popular breakfast items like eggs, coffee, sausage, bacon and orange juice was 19% compared with last year and double 2020 costs.
“At a breakfast place, if the cost of protein – sausage and bacon – is going up, eggs are going up and flour is affecting the cost of bread, there’s no room to improve things for yourself,” he said.
Like Slaughter, Kleinberg and his team raised prices across the board about a year ago to keep up with inflation: the eggs Benedict that cost $16 a few years ago now cost $18.
Most menu items at the popular Philadelphia breakfast chain Green Eggs Cafe are – true to its name – made with eggs.
