Will Spokane breakfast joints crack under the pressure of skyrocketing egg prices?

In order to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs.

But as of late, those eggs also are breaking the bank for local restaurants.

Diners, brunch spots and breakfast nooks across Spokane County have contended with dramatic rises in egg costs in recent months, which hit a record high of more than $8.50 a dozen in February.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent data shows prices have started to decline, both for wholesale and consumers. While that’s provided some temporary relief for local restaurant owners, it’s unclear if that trend will hold as Easter approaches and President Donald Trump’s tariff threats loom.

“We’re hoping that they kind of continue that trend of going down, obviously, because what we’re paying now is crazier than COVID was,” said Brian Northcraft, owner of Uncle Rusty’s Diner, 718 E. Francis Ave.

Northcraft says his business goes through about 30 dozen eggs per week, served scrambled in a hash, sunny-side-up next to toast and baked into a variety of desserts. Those eggs cost around 8 cents each six years ago when the shop opened and rose to nearly 90 cents apiece at the peak earlier this year, he said. His most recent egg order came with a $160 bill, or about 44 cents per egg.

Aside from the costs, Northcraft said sourcing those eggs also has been a challenge. He’s had to shop around to find the best deals, or wholesalers with enough stock.

That’s consistent with the experience of South Hill restaurant The Chalet, said co-owner Erica Wegner. They had to “go all around town to get enough” when their suppliers ran low.

“It’s also been difficult because the consistency is different,” Wegner said. “We get different sizes, or brown or white, or just different eggs, and it’s hard to maintain consistent cooking when you’re getting different products in, regularly.”

The deadly H5NI virus, commonly referred to as avian or bird flu, was first discovered in commercial poultry facilities in the U.S. in 2022. It quickly spread throughout all 50 states, into humans, cats, rats and cattle. Three years later, the pathogenic flu has killed or led to the slaughter of more than 168 million aquatic birds, commercial poultry and backyard flocks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The current market is a case of supply and demand, said Washington State University Professor Shannon Neibergs, director of the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center. The agriculture economist said the lack of supply brought about by the outbreak and culling was “certainly the initial driving force” behind the cost increases.

Neibergs said the recent decline in costs could be caused by an increase in the amount of eggs imported into the U.S. over the past, increasing the supply. Trump had posited relaxing the federal policy requiring the culling of poultry in contact or near bird flu outbreaks to increase domestic egg supply, but USDA officials confirmed in February there are “no anticipated changes” to the policy.

Increasing the domestic supply is a bit more complicated than just waiting for baby chicks to grow up and assume their roles as egg laying hens, Neibergs said. There’s a quarantine period and cleanings, and the facilities impacted need to be inspected to ensure they are free of disease.

Wegner and her husband, Rudy Wegner, met at The Chalet, 2918 S. Grand Blvd., as 16-year-old employees. The high school sweethearts took over the more than 40-year-old business with their friend Mike Hassett last year, and have been working to revamp the exterior, decor and menu while having to contend with the egg market challenges.

The Chalet’s cost per egg at the height of the price increases was similar to those of Uncle Rusty’s, as is their current cost. Wegner said the restaurant uses an average of 150 whole eggs per day, even as they’ve tried to introduce specials featuring less egg-dependent dishes.

Wegner said she and her co-owners have considered introducing a discount for customers ordering a scramble with liquid eggs, but have not moved forward with it yet. Wegner, Northcraft and Robin Bernhart, a managing partner of the restaurant group that owns the two Frank’s Diner locations, all said they have not passed the cost increases down to their customers.

“We are eating the extra cost because a lot of our customers are on fixed incomes, things like that,” Northcraft said. “They couldn’t afford it.”

Northcraft added that he also doesn’t want customers to be put off by a surcharge for eggs and damage the relationships he’s built or could build with potential regulars. He argued that chains like Denny’s, which has introduced such a surcharge, could afford to lose some business, while mom and pop restaurants cannot.

It’s a sentiment shared by Bernhart. The two Frank’s locations go through around 20,000 jumbo eggs each month, as the diner’s kitschy hold line proudly states to waiting callers.

“The bigger players are the ones that are doing that, and I’m a little bit surprised by it,” Bernhart said.

It may be a while until the market finds some stability, and prices settle down from their weekly fluctuations. In the meantime, the best thing Inland Northwest residents can do to support locally owned restaurants is to visit and eat, rather than at a chain “raising the prices on the customers,” Northcraft said.

“It really does go a long ways right now to help us keep going,” Northcraft said. “We’re trying to be there for them, so we just hope that they continue to be there for us.”