That’s the sign customers encountered when they went for a bite at the longtime SanRemo bakery in Etobicoke on Thursday.
The restaurant is one of several in Toronto that simply don’t have lettuce or are removing it from their menu due to a lack of supplies and increased prices for leafy greens.
“If we don’t get the ingredients, it’s difficult.  You know, you have to cut products… it’s really a balancing game right now that we’re playing,” Robert Bozzo, owner of SanRemo Bakery, told CP24 on Thursday.
Fast-food chain Subway also said lettuce is temporarily unavailable at some of its restaurants, and the Canadian division of Swiss chard said garden and Caesar salads are currently unavailable.
The lettuce shortage is reportedly due to a supply problem in California.
Restaurants Canada COO Kelly Higginson told The Canadian Press that a major lettuce growing area in the sunshine state was hit by a virus and their crops were “decimated.”
Dr.  Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie, said the supply chain issue has caused lettuce prices to jump 30 percent year-over-year in Canada.
“I think a lot of people are noticing that lettuce is a problem right now, where we’ve run out, because really California hasn’t been able to produce as much as it should this time of year.  But these situations are temporary.  We are expecting a very fruitful December as we approach the holidays,” he told CP24 on Wednesday.
Bozzo has seen the price rise for leafy greens over the past two weeks, paying between $125 and $140 for a case of romaine lettuce.
Despite the lettuce shortage, Buzzo said his bakery cannot continue to pay high costs for the vegetable.
“We want to be careful about what we have to put up with and pass things along to our customers.  Our customer base is from very low to high income and for us we want to be able to serve everyone,” he said.
Bozzo added that the bakery does not plan to raise prices on its sandwiches once they get the lettuce back in stock.
The lettuce shortage comes as Canadians are spending unprecedented amounts on groceries this year due to rising inflation.
According to Statistics Canada, the annual increase in grocery store prices hit a high of 11.4 per cent in September – the biggest jump since 1981. That figure continued to remain high in October at 11 per cent.
However, food prices rose less in October (10.1%) compared to September (10.3%) on an annual basis.
The product with the largest year-on-year price increase in October was margarine at 40.4%, followed by pasta at 27.4%.
Other food items that saw price increases from September to October include butter, dairy and eggs.
Boozo noticed the price increase for these regular products needed in his bakery.
“It was really crazy, like flour, grease, oil.  We are a pastry shop and we use all the raw materials we can.”
Charlebois said the rise in grocery prices was largely linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supply chain issues.
“It’s a commodity story.  When you look at animals like eggs and dairy, also, it costs more to feed animals on the farm, energy costs also drive up prices,” he said.
“Delays waste all these things that consumers don’t really see when they go out to a grocery store and it costs processors, retailers, everybody really money, and at the end of the day, consumers have to pay for it.  ” he added.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, according to Charlebois.
He said the Canadian dollar will help reduce food costs in the coming weeks.
“It’s about 75 cents to the dollar.  This will help importers as we approach winter.  We will import more food, that will help us.  So we are expecting an easier winter compared to what we have seen in recent months,” he said.
Until then, Bozzo said his bakery is trying to get by as best it can.
“As busy as we are, we’re still in survival mode and we’re still trying to survive and get over this hump because you can feel something coming.  You just feel it coming in.”
-With files from The Canadian Press