One of Fort Worth’s favorite Chinese restaurants is closing due to worker shortage
Cannon Chinese Kitchen, a modern Chinese restaurant near South Main Vilage, will close Aug. 7 due to a shortage of workers, according to an announcement posted Sunday on Facebook.
“For all we have overcome in the past year and half,” the Facebook post said, nothing compares to “what the hospitality/service industry is currently facing with the shortage of staff.”
Cannon, 304 W. Cannon St., opened in 2015 under Jarry and Mary Ho and Casey Kha, owners of Shinjuku Station in the Near Southside and long-standing west side favorite Tokyo Cafe.
“We leave behind a little yellow house that held fond memories for so many,” the Facebook post reads.
Several other local restaurants have cut service hours or days — or delayed opening entirely — due to the national shortage of more than 2 million restaurant, hotel and manufacturing workers, but Cannon is the first restaurant to close completely for lack of staff.
Cannon opened in 2015 and became the highest-rated table-service Chinese restaurant in Fort Worth, although much of that business has gone to pan-Asian restaurants or to Chinese buffets.
Howard Wang’s China Grill, an upscale Chinese restaurant and bar from Dallas, closed its Shops of Southlake location June 27.
Some former restaurant workers in every type of cuisine have taken jobs elsewhere or landed work from home as the pandemic fluctuates, a few citing unsafe working conditions and hostility from an increasing number of customers.
A supplemental unemployment benefit check for workers due to COVID-19 ended June 26, but that has not eased the labor shortage. The reduction in U.S. immigration the last four years has also left restaurants desperate for new help in an industry where immigrants make up about 30% of the workforce.
