BOZEMAN — Nova Cafe is a popular breakfast choice in Bozeman, but the next time you eat at a restaurant like this, you might be feeling scrambled at the price of your eggs.

Watch the story here:

“Poached eggs with a nice slice of ham on an English muffin and you put some hollandaise on top,” said Evan Thorpe.

Thorpe is the owner of Nova Café, a local breakfast spot, where eggs are the star of the menu.

“Our hash bowls come with eggs on them, you know the basic standard breakfast is scrambled or over easy with it, even our pancakes, we have the Deuce, which comes with eggs,” said Thorpe.

Restaurants like Nova Café are struggling to break even due to an egg shortage caused by bird flu, resulting in the loss of 21 million egg-laying hens nationwide. According to the USDA, egg prices are expected to increase by 20% in 2025.

“All the profits on that plate, or any plate that has that egg now gets cut,” said Thorpe.

Local shoppers are also seeing the effects of the egg shortage on grocery store shelves.

“They’re pretty expensive, I feel like they have been for quite a while,” said Sasha Hathaway while shopping at the grocery store.

Shoppers like Sasha tell me they don’t plan to stop buying eggs but now have to adjust to fit the growing prices.

“I buy in like, bigger bulk quantities now just because smaller 12 packs are pretty expensive,” said Sasha.

Back at Nova Café, customers will see a surcharge for egg dishes thanks to the egg shortage.

“Come out and support us as much as possible, even through the surcharges and just know that those are temporary and as soon as those egg prices come down, we’ll get those off,” said Thorpe.