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Few restaurants closed as immigrants rally
Mon May 1, 2006 4:12 PM ET

By Nichola Groom

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Immigrant-owned taco stands and bakeries from California to New Jersey largely were shut down on Monday, but most U.S. restaurants reported no shortage of busboys and cooks despite a national boycott and major protests by pro-immigration activists.

In Los Angeles' predominantly Latino neighborhood of Echo Park, mom-and-pop bakeries joined other businesses in closing for the day. The same was true in a largely Hispanic area of Jersey City, New Jersey, where a normally busy Mexican restaurant was closed at lunch time.

A shortage of workers also extended to some restaurant chains. McDonald's Corp., for instance, said some of its restaurants were operating with limited staff or were just running their drive-thrus.

Overall, however, experts said most restaurants were operating normally and estimated the rallies would have a limited impact on the industry since many had rejigged their schedules to accommodate workers who wanted the day off.

"The actual economic damage will be minimal because they will be able to double up on shifts," said Malcolm Knapp, president of restaurant research firm Malcolm M. Knapp Inc.

In downtown Los Angeles, employees at several popular lunch spots said everyone had shown up to work. Eateries at the Westfield Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, New Jersey also reported no lack of workers and a spokeswoman for Starbucks Corp. said the chain had not had to close or pare back the hours of any of its coffee shops.

A spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association, Chrissy Shott, said the trade group had encouraged restaurants to be flexible with shifts or to send one or two employees to the rallies as representatives. She could not estimate how many of the restaurant industry's 1.6 million immigrant workers had asked for the day off or stayed home.

Major restaurant companies such as IHOP Corp., Applebee's International Inc. and Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants Inc. said they had been planning for Monday's rallies for several weeks.

"This is definitely a situation that we were able to plan for," said Applebee's spokesman Frank Ybarra, who added that employees in Texas and California had shown the most interest in taking the day off.

IHOP spokesman Patrick Lenow said some of the chain's restaurants were prepared to offer a limited menu or even close if staff failed to show up to work, but added those plans had not been implemented.

"We have not heard of any difficulties," he said.

(Additional reporting by Martinne Geller, Chelsea Emery, Robert MacMillan and Anupama Chandrasekaran in New York and Alexandria Sage in Los Angeles)