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The soaring cost of eggs is hitting your local breakfast spot hard.
Feb. 12, 2025, 2:07 p.m. ET
Karen Huebner did not want to raise the price of omelets.
Even as she was paying more for eggs week after week, she held prices steady on over-easy dishes and breakfast burritos and other customer favorites at the Hot Grillz Diner, the small, restaurant her family owns in Walton Hills, Ohio, about 15 miles southeast of Cleveland.
But this week, the cost of her order of eggs jumped to nearly $1,000, up from $300 just a few weeks ago. The moment had arrived.
“I said I wasn’t going to do it, but this is crushing me,” Ms. Huebner said. “My loyal customers would rather pay 50 cents more an egg right now than to see these doors close because I can’t pay my rent.”
As the wholesale price of eggs — what retailers and restaurants pay — hit new highs of $8.11 a dozen, breakfast specials at some restaurants are getting more expensive.
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Last week, Waffle House said it would add a temporary surcharge of 50 cents for each egg used in dishes. Across the country, smaller restaurant chains and bakeries that use a lot of eggs are either bumping prices up or adding temporary surcharges, trying to pass along some of the expense to inflation-weary customers.
