WNY restaurants brace for impact potential tariffs could have on food prices

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WIVB) — The restaurant industry in Western New York is hoping the impact of President Donald Trump’s potential tariffs won’t have businesses biting off more than they can chew.

Tariffs on Mexico and Canada have both been put on a one-month hold as of Monday. However, a tariff on China is still set to go into effect as the future remains unclear.

Like many restaurants and businesses, Paul Santora, who owns Santora’s Pizza Pub & Grill in Williamsville, is waiting to find out if his restaurant will be affected by eventual tariffs on imports from countries including Canada.

“I don’t know if it’s going to affect any of us, I’m anxious to find out,” he said. “We open the doors every day and we just hope to survive another month.”

Santora has owned his business for more than 40 years, experiencing a lot of change in the restaurant industry during that time.

“Just try to adapt and move forward. There’s really no option right? When you’re in business, you’re either in business to succeed and by then it’s an evolution, it continues to change,” Santora said. “We just have to keep making those adjustments to be comfortable in what we do.”

He says it’s important for business owners to remain calm if the cost of food and goods increase.

“The quicker you act, the more hastily you act, I think the more struggle you have,” he said.

Melissa Fleischut is the president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association. She said the restaurant industry is currently not doing well.

“Restaurants closing, foot traffic has been down. Profitability has been down,” she said. “This is a very slim profit majority to begin with. We typically see maybe 3%, but so many of our restaurants are telling us this last year they were flat or down. You can’t continue to operate a business if you’re not making any profit.”

Fleischut says it’s too early to tell how President Trump’s tariffs will affect restaurants, but said keeping products affordable is key to a business’s success.

“Affordability is sort of the key word here in terms of our consumers,” she said. “Doesn’t seem to matter what side of the political aisle you’re on, affordability is the main concern here.”

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Sarah Minkewicz is an Emmy-nominated reporter and Buffalo native who has been a part of the News 4 team since 2019. Follow Sarah on Twitter @SarahMinkewicz and click here to see more of her work.

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