A breakfast plate at Kitchen Story in San Francisco.

Amid California’s bird flu outbreak, egg prices have risen to nearly $9 per dozen, according to USDA data. Consumers are certainly feeling the effects, from the 70% price hike to Bay Area grocery stores imposing purchase limits on eggs. But restaurants across the state that rely on eggs to make their signature dishes may be hurting the most.

Cara Haltiwanger had the unfortunate timing of opening her new Los Angeles breakfast sandwich restaurant, Calabama, in November. Bird flu outbreaks had “caused the deaths of more than 1.7 million birds in Merced County” as of Dec. 5 and 1.1 million in Stanislaus County as of Dec. 24, reported the San Francisco Chronicle (the Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms). Soon after, egg prices began to skyrocket.

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“It’s f—king killing me,” Haltiwanger told SFGATE. “I’m an egg restaurant, I have to buy eggs no matter what, you know?”

She first started Calabama as a pandemic pop-up in 2020, earning a cultlike following for delivering Southern-style breakfast sandwiches via bucket drops. Now that she’s finally opened her brick-and-mortar, she’s spending her time dashing between Restaurant Depot, Smart & Final and Costco in search of eggs, where a case (180 eggs) is currently ranging between $100 and $150 — nearly $1 per egg.........

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