Cafe 19 is a small bakery and cafe in the heart of Seneca Falls, with a women’s rights theme. The owner says she works with local vendors whenever possible.
“It’s nice to build those relationships with people in your local area who are working toward the same goal as you,” said owner Casey Galloway said. “Serving good-quality products to people. We put so much effort and care into our products that it makes sense to work with other people who do the same.”
But her business is feeling the pain of high egg prices.
“The eggs in particular, I noticed the increase about a month ago,” she added. “It was really bad. I ordered three cases of eggs. The cases have 30 dozen in them. And it was $400 to get. And that’s what we’re doing in one week. It’s hard to stomach. We serve a lot of breakfast. It’s definitely challenging. There’s really only two options. You either have to cut your portion sizes or raise your prices.”
Related: Egg prices have skyrocketed: From $1.80 to $5.40 in one year
But first, she’s being creative and trying to use egg substitutes when possible.
“You can make lots of good things without using eggs,” she said. “Flax eggs, it’s just flax seeds. Or you can use chia seeds mixed with water. It has a similar effect to an egg in a baked-good recipe. You can make macarons with Aquafaba. It’s the liquid from chickpeas. Canned chickpeas. You can use that and whip that up and make macarons out of it because it acts similar to egg whites when you whip them. It’s fascinating what you can do with food.”
Still, she’s looking for other ways to cut costs.
“Not everything comes from local purveyors,” she added. “We try to get as much as we can from local, but still have to use Sysco. I can’t get vegetable oil locally. Or paper products for to-go food. So it’s just researching and sourcing places where I can get a good-quality product for cheaper than I was getting it before. Cutting costs everywhere you can.”
Rebecca is a veteran multimedia journalist serving as one of our core reporters in the Finger Lakes region. She is responsible for telling stories that matter to every day Upstate New Yorkers. Have a question or lead? Send it to [email protected].