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New Orleans has some of the nation's most famous restaurants, from Commander's Palace to Emeril's Delmonico Restaurant & Bar. But in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of restaurant workers are looking for jobs. A prominent Sarasota restaurateur, Michael Klauber of Michael's on East, said he has hired two of the displaced restaurant workers and helped a third find work at Patrick's Restaurant, also in Sarasota. Now, he is urging other Florida restaurants to do the same.
Klauber is an officer of the Council for Independent Restaurants of America, a trade group that has created an Internet job board for displaced restaurant workers at
www.cirajobs.com
.
"I worked in New Orleans for five years right after college," Klauber said Wednesday. "So when they [the displaced workers] walked in the door, I was like, 'Yeah, when can you start?' " World-famous for its food, New Orleans had more than its share of restaurant employees. According to the National Restaurant Association, there may have been 4,800 restaurants with 62,000 employees in the areas of Louisiana most impacted by the hurricane.
The National Restaurant Association has its own job board for displaced restaurant workers at
www.restaurant.org/katrina/
jobboard.cfm.
If displaced restaurant workers come to Florida looking for work, there will be jobs for at least some of them, said Nick Vojnovic, president of the Tampa-based Beef O'Brady's chain and incoming chairman of the Florida Restaurant Association. "Right now, the labor market is so tight," Vojnovic said.