The idea of taking a real vacation is problematic in the restaurant industry.
Though paid vacation is increasingly a benefit being offered in the post-Covid era, it remains a challenge to cover hourly worker shifts on super-lean teams. And it can seem near impossible for managers to truly unplug when they know how much can go wrong in their absence.
But Arjav Ezekiel and Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel, husband-and-wife owners of the restaurant Birdie’s in Austin, Texas, have found a way to both give their team a real vacation—and take one themselves.
Arjav Ezekiel and Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel are co-owners of Birdie's in Austin, Texas.
Birdie’s closes twice each year for two-week periods—two weeks in mid-August and two weeks around Christmas through early January.
During that time, workers are paid. The rate varies, but hourly workers receive roughly about $13 to $14 per hour based on their typical weekly schedules. Birdie’s operates on a five-day week (closed Sundays and Mondays), so schedules are fairly steady, said Ezekiel.
It’s not a cheap thing to do, to say the least, he said. Closing for that much vacation means missing out on about one month of revenue.
But that’s not the way the couple looks at it.
“We don’t see it as losing today money. We see it as making tomorrow money,” he said. “We make that money up when people come back. People come back energized.”
It’s not unusual for team members to use those breaks for personal development, Ezekiel said.
Staffers have visited wineries for the harvest, for example, or traveled to Japan. “They’ve had time to work on themselves, think about what they really want in life. And people come back much more clear and ready for the busy season,” said Ezekiel.
Austin’s hot-and-humid August is typically a very slow time anyway. The busy season runs from September through May, typically, and a vacation during the holidays breaks that up a bit, which helps alleviate fatigue.
For workers, the closures allow them to plan for vacations. If they need to take time off outside the close-down period, that’s okay, but it won’t be paid, Ezekiel said.
In Europe, restaurant closures for vacation are not unusual. But the practice remains rare in the U.S.
Birdie’s has been offering this benefit since it opened in 2021. The “fine-casual” concept is fine dining in its menu and food quality, but the format is counter-service.
“Tracy and my background is fine dining in one-, two-, and three-Michelin-star restaurants in New York City, so we built Birdie’s very much as a reflection of the things we loved about fine dining, which is attention to detail, really high-end produce and ingredients, [and] really extensive wine list, but we do it all as a counter-service model,” he said.
That allows for a lean staff of about 15 in total. The 82-seat restaurant turns about 200 covers on a busy night.
Ezekiel and Malechek-Ezekiel are both alums of Union Square Hospitality Group in New York City, where they met working for Danny Meyer concepts like Gramercy Tavern and Untitled at the Whitney.
They signed a lease to open Birdie’s right before the pandemic hit, and, as they developed the concept, Covid’s impact on the industry inspired them to explore a new model for compensation. Birdie’s, for example, does not take a tip credit. All workers are paid a base wage that starts at $8 per hour and then share equally in tips.
Birdie’s also adds a 3.5% health and wellness fee to guest checks that supports benefits like healthcare coverage—as well as the paid vacation for hourly workers. The fee is not optional, but, in two years, only once has a guest asked to take it off. The fee has also not discouraged guests from tipping generously, Ezekiel said.
Fundamentally, it’s about building a model that allows for work-life balance, not only for the staff but also for the owners.
“Closing the restaurant for vacation was very much a conversation Tracy and I had before we opened,” said Ezekiel. “We knew we wanted to have our restaurant working for us, not us working for our restaurant.”
One of them is at the restaurant every single day, he noted, but the couple now has a seven-month-old baby.
To other operators, Ezekiel said it’s worth a try, even if you don’t close as long as Birdie’s does.
“If you’re a small restaurant and thinking about doing it, the real benefit is we don’t have people just requesting random times off, and we have to figure out how to cover that person’s schedule,” he said. “It takes that operational load off of you.”
And people really do come back recharged, he said. “They’re really energized about working again.”
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