ROCKLAND, Maine — In June 2022, Kerry Altiero made the most difficult decision of his professional life. The time had come to shut down his funky, freewheeling, unconventional Café Miranda, a fixture in downtown Rockland for 29 years.
Sitting at a table in the restaurant with Evelyn, his co-founder and former wife, Altiero broke the news. “I said, ‘I’ve got to take you outside and talk to you,’” he recalls. “I said, ‘Evelyn, we’ve got to close it. We’re losing money hand over fist.’”
The problem was staffing. The restaurant needed to be open five or six or seven days a week to turn a profit, and yet, it couldn’t find and hire the three additional cooks it needed to operate on that schedule.
“I’ve had many dope slaps from the gods,” Altiero says. “This is yet another one.”
Over the last year, Altiero has spent a lot of time thinking about the challenges independent restaurants face. It’s a discouraging list, but one issue stands out: the difficulty of finding — and retaining — first-rate employees. I put the question directly to Altiero. Is the traditional business model for restaurants broken?
“Let’s use a culinary term,” he says. “Toast! It’s toast. Burnt!”
What changes would he like to see? For starters, better pay for restaurant workers — $30 an hour would be reasonable, he says — along with training, health insurance, retirement benefits, and paid vacation.
“We’re expecting the level of craftsmanship equal to an electrician or a plumber or a carpenter or an automotive technician, and we’re not paying that kind of [compensation] or giving people the same career opportunities,” he said.
Now, after a year away, Altiero is coming back. His plan is to rent out Café Miranda for private events and community meals. On the side patio, he’s outfitting a three-wheeled Vespa to serve beer, wine, and cappuccino, and setting up a cart to be called The Excellent Dog. It will sell “punk hot dogs of character” topped with everything from kimchee to lobster salad.
The ambitions for next winter are even bigger.
“I want to prove you can run a restaurant at a profitable margin and pay people well,” he says.
The prices on the menu will, inevitably, be higher than what people are used to paying.
He added, “If it doesn’t work, then we have proved something — that the public won’t do it.”
Standing outside near the front steps of Café Miranda, Altiero exudes enthusiasm and determination. He’s a realist, though, and knows he’s taking a gamble.
“I thought this would live past my lifetime,” he says, pointing to the restaurant. “And it should.”