Workers Needed in Sevier County

Retailers and restaurant owners in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and Sevierville are bemoaning the lack of employees available to fill jobs in the area. It seems that there are many more jobs available than people to work them and some of the new restaurants are making do with less staff than they would normally have.

New in just Pigeon Forge are the Fiddler’s Feast dinner theatre, Bullfish Grill, Connors, The Chop House, Johnny Carino’s, the Olive Garden, Red Lobster and the Smoky Mountain Brewery. Bob McManus, owner of the Bullfish Grill would normally hire 120 employees to staff his restaurant, but he has just 88 employees. Interestingly, I ran a Knoxville News Sentinel review earlier about Bullfish, and it gave the restaurant rave reviews for the wonderful service, so even though McManus would like to hire more employees, he is obviously doing a good job with the staff he has.

Now with the gas prices escalating beyond belief, the struggle to attract new workers is going to be harder than ever. The same owner of Bullfish, Bob McManus, is looking to the future and partnering with others to build affordable apartments along a stretch of Dollywood Lane. The new buildings would have a common area with a kitchen that renters would share, with individual bedrooms to keep costs down. They hope to have them open by next year and we will follow this development as it goes forward.

On another front, I am glad that there are some quality new restaurants coming into the area and I hope that the beleaguered former employees of Lin Tibbett’s Open Hearth will find new employers who will treat them with the respect they deserve. It seems after years of owning a number of Waffle Houses and the well-known Open Hearth restaurant, Mr. Tibbett’s just shut the doors and turned his back on employees, many of whom were unpaid. Thank goodness that the area is seeking more people. We hope these employees will find jobs easily and will be appreciated for the hard work they perform.