CINCINNATI -- At the worst point of the labor shortage that emerged in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Thunderdome Restaurant Group had 100 people sign up for a job interview and only 15 show up. Of the two workers it hired, one never came in.

The job market has cooled significantly since then, and Joe Lanni, who runs the Cincinnati-based company with his brother, now faces a different dilemma: How to grow the business, which has more than 50 locations, while controlling costs as concerns about the economy spread.

So they’re rethinking menu items like freshly made tortillas that require a dedicated full-time worker. They are also planning to shutter a handful of locations where sales have been softest, while adding more outposts of their fast casual restaurants that are doing well.

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