Restaurants feeling the crunch of lettuce shortage

A lettuce shortage is affecting grocery store shelves and restaurant tables across Canada.

The supply crunch comes from a bad season for farmers in California, according to Dr. Sylvain Charlesbois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

"Things dried up quite significantly over the last few months, which actually made plants more vulnerable to viruses and there was a virus impacting many crops there," Charlesbois tells CTV News.

It's forcing restaurants to make the tough decision between upping their prices or pulling the leafy green from their menu.

"It's costing me about $150 more per day for lettuce," says Tim Karras, owner of Karras Way Restaurant in Renfrew.

At the Greek restaurant, nearly every menu option comes with salad, making it impossible for Karras to drop the vegetable.

"I go through probably two cases of lettuce here a day," he says.

"[To compensate] I decrease my salads a little bit and up it a dollar, just to keep everyone happy. I'm sure people understand."

Many fast food and chain restaurants have made the decision to go without lettuce for the time being.

Swiss Chalet has said their garden and Caesar salads will be temporarily unavailable. Wraps and burgers will also be served without lettuce.

Chains such as Wendy's, Harvey's, and Subway also saying orders may come lettuce-less.

Charlebois says the shortage should not last long.

"We're expecting other markets like Mexico and Arizona to actually pick up the pace in December, so we should be fine for the holidays."