How Beth’s Cafe in Seattle Is Navigating the Egg Price Crisis | Eater Seattle

"On the side of Aurora as you drive through Green Lake, this battered, venerable diner has long been the north Seattle go-to for late-night eats: small, unpretentious, family-friendly, and for decades the place to go when you need to eat after midnight. Famous for massive 12-egg omelets — and even six-egg omelets and three-egg scrambles that are heavy on eggs — the restaurant goes through 15 to 20 cases of eggs a week; a case is 15 dozen eggs, so that means the restaurant cracks open upwards of 3,600 eggs a week, which averages to more than 500 per day. Co-owner Mason Reed (who took over last year) says the bird-flu–driven egg shortage has been devastating: the diner had been sourcing its eggs from Wilcox Farms but "lately we’ve had to branch out," and Reed and his team have been going to Costco and US Food’s Chef’Store and making calls to anywhere that might have eggs. "It’s been a juggling act," Reed says; "I feel like a drug dealer trying to find my source," he adds. The situation was compounded by a Washington law at the beginning of 2024 requiring all eggs sold in the state to be cage-free, which pushed the price per egg from 9 cents to about 27 cents (a case was around $40), and in the past few months case prices have jumped again to anywhere from $80 to $150 depending on the week: "It just is really turbulent," says Reed. Menu prices reflect those changes: the Triple Bypass 12-egg omelet (with bacon, sausage, ham, and two kinds of cheese) was $22.50 in 2020 (according to the Seattle Times), $34.95 when the diner reopened in 2023, and is now $41.95, and Reed says he’s raised prices twice since the start of 2024 to deal with the cage-free law and Seattle’s rising minimum wage. Reed says, "[The diner] is famous for their big omelets, it’s not something I want to get rid of," but he is contemplating more non-egg options (including tofu scrambles), smaller portions under $15, and efforts to keep "prices as low as possible." For now he’s found a more stable source — a California-based supplier called Alderwood Eggs — though he hesitates to promote it: "I don’t want to put it out there because I don’t want everyone to buy all my eggs." The diner still intends to offer $42 omelets for competitive eaters, but at its core aims to remain a place that serves affordable, filling food to families and working people." - Harry Cheadle