CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The cost of beef, pork, and other red meats has skyrocketed and restaurants are once again paying the price of this pandemic. Some operations have been forced to pass based on the cost, in hopes of surviving the shutdown.

“We never would have made it without the government loan,” Matt Wohlfarth says. He owns the Dilworth Neighborhood Grill in Charlotte. His restaurant has been one of the lucky ones to make it this far. “When the government shuts you down for 9 or 10 weeks, it's hard,” Wohlfarth says. “Maybe impossible.”

He and his staff stepped outside of their cuisine comfort zone, selling and delivering groceries just so they can open another day. “I never really thought we would sell that much,” he says. “But it's been crazy. Anytime we can get our hands on anything, the Purell wipes or the Lysol, it flies out of here.”

As Phase 2 of reopening creeps into the horizon, restaurants nationwide are being hit with the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks in meat processing plants. “We've been taking it on the chin,” Wohlfarth says. “It's, in many cases, doubled the price of what it used to be.”

He was talking about prices on meat, specifically red meat like beef and pork. “If the hamburger used to be $1.80, now it's $3,” he explains. “It's tough because you based everything off the $1.80.” “We sell thousands of burgers,” he adds.

Since March, two dozen major meat processing plants have shut down across the country. The Department of Agriculture estimated last week it led to as much as a 28 percent drop in beef, pork, and other red meats compared to the same time last year.

Some eateries already struggling to hold on are taking to social media, like the beloved Brooks Sandwich Shop in Charlotte did to inform customers about being forced to raise prices. “I can't blame them,” Wohlfarth says. It hasn't been something we have done, but if you're losing money every single day, you got to do something.”

Wohlfarth says his establishment is just absorbing the increased cost for meat. “It takes a lot of work to change prices on the menu, reprinting all the menus, so we just haven't done it,” Wohlfarth says.

That's for now, he says. “The biggest issue is whether or not we open up on Friday,” he explains. “I think we will. And, that should make a lot of things better. That will make a bigger impact than this.”

He just doesn't know yet if it will be positive or negative.

It all depends on whether we enter Phase 2.  “If meat stays high for another month or two, everyone's going to be higher,” he adds.