McMillan had a front row seat to the workforce difficulties taking shape each day in St. Louis. “We felt that providing a community training program could help fulfill this extreme demand for talent,” he said of the 1,000 restaurant job openings a day. “Applicants could confidently enter the workforce with the necessary short-term training needed to obtain these jobs.”

Lion’s Choice answer: The brand donated the 2,771-square-foot restaurant and .95-acre site to the Urban League.

In partnership with the Missouri Restaurant Association and chancellor Jeff Pittman of St. Louis Community College, the restaurant will now become a training center for people interested in seeking gainful employment in the restaurant industry.

This branch of the Urban League is actually the second largest in the country. It has deep roots transitioning young people from the area into the workface. When Lion’s Choice connected, Kupstas says, the chain didn’t realize a curriculum was already built. After falling through on three different properties, the program was just looking for a home to get started.

Five years in development, it allows for post-high school work without a culinary degree, focusing on educating and teaching basic restaurant skills in the front and back of the house. The curriculum provides a pathway into the middle class, Kupstas says.

One positive thing about the spot, too, is that it’s a working restaurant ready to simulate real life. Lion’s Choice left some tables, chairs, the walk-in, cooler, stainless shelving, and other equipment.

And yes, people who progress through the program could end up employed and helping Lion’s Choice. Kupstas says the brand has more units not fully staffed today than any other time in its history. The company employs roughly 625 people. “I can honestly say I wish we had another 10–15 percent more,” he says.

But beyond just filling roles, Kupstas believes the opportunity could turn into much more than a gap-stopper for these workers. According to the National Restaurant Association, nine out of 10 restaurant managers and eight out of 10 restaurant owners started their careers in entry-level positions. Why not look at this chance as the start of something much larger?

“The restaurant and hospitality industry is a huge point of entry for any career you choose,” Kupstas says. “It teaches great business skills. It teaches specific food handling and restaurant skills.”

“I think, for whatever reason, restaurants and hospitality are already seen as a last resort,” he adds. “Like, I’ll go find a job somewhere else and if I can’t find one I know that will always be there. It’s sad with all the focus and all the great success stories that exist where people start, stay in it, make good livings, and find it to be gratifying, that it still has a bit of a blemish on it.”

The program, though, puts restaurant work on a pedestal. “It shows this really can be a pathway to a great living and a great career,” Kupstas says. “We’re anxious to help in any way with this facility, whether it’s in systems, in teaching, or additional funds or equipment. Let’s just see if this really works. Let’s see if we can make a dent in a real tough labor market.”

While Lion’s Choice has faced down its share of labor challenges, Kupstas says, it benefits from long-standing equity in the community, and its tenured employees reflect that. There are managers who have been around 30-plus years. Kupstas says he just celebrated a worker who hit four decades with Lion’s Choice.

Yet, like restaurants across the wage pressure lexicon, Lion’s Choice has dealt with increasing market rates as demand rises. “We just spent time in our open enrollment and negotiated hard to actually stabilize benefit costs and to get a slight decrease,” Kupstas says. “We think that’s a big attractant point right now, where health care and benefits are going up across the country for the most part based on a bunch of factors. Historically, we’ve been able to take that down.”

Lion’s Choice announced to employees recently, those eligible for benefits, that it’s providing a decrease in health care. “I think, ultimately, what we hear from our managers and our team members all the time—what makes them stay with us and why they like it here—is that they feel part of the family and part of something special. That’s a point of leverage that we have that I’m going to suggest others don’t.”

It’s about creating a culture employees enjoy being a part of, anchored by good wages and solid benefits. One they wouldn’t consider leaving.

And here’s another seldom-cited reality of restaurant employment. This up-and-coming generation simply has a different set of priorities than past groups.

“I feel like there’s more work-life balance challenges that they are attempting to deal with, which does mean that we’ve got to be flexible and accommodating,” Kupstas says. “At the same time, there’s no better place than the restaurant business, right?”

Lion’s Choice is agile with its hiring, offering hours that flex to schedules. There are couples in the system, Kupstas says, where one works mornings, the other afternoons. Someone from Monday to Friday. Another on the weekends. “That’s a big factor in this industry,” he says. “The 9-5 office jobs for couples who both have other choice they have to make. Here they can still be able to raise a family and have children, and enjoy each other’s company.”

There are Lion’s Choice stores where people work a day or two a week. This is especially powerful with people hoping to load up on extra-curricular activities headed into college.

“Again, it’s that market breakdown,” Kupstas says. “What’s great in central St. Louis isn’t good is West County. We just have to be flexible enough to adapt and provide the needs of the potential employees.”

Lion’s Choice’s simple menu helps as well, he adds. It gives employees the opportunity to focus on quality and preparation and presentation and less about a multitude of options.

There are four product pillars: Roast beef, fries cooked through a three-step process, and customization. But even there, Lion’s Choice doesn’t flood itself with complexity.

It has a 25-foot sauce bar that lets guests take the reins without bottlenecking operations. “I think the simplification of that, yet the great execution of it, does make it an easier place than a menu that has 16 panels and wants to be something to everyone. That’s not in our mission or vision. That’s not the way we execute,” Kupstas says.

Despite closing this particular store, Lion’s Choice is in growth mode. The brand is working to open five units a year and prove it can thrive outside St. Louis. Two stores opened in Kansas City over the past year, with three more in the pipeline. Lion’s Choice is also in the midst of a remodel program to show guests and potential employees the brand is riding an upward trajectory.

“As we start to add those layers, as we grow from market to market, it’s our hope that provides yet another opportunity for hiring to appeal to that group,” Kupstas says.