With a deepening recession, businesses are looking to cut costs.

Restaurants are no exception. But for some local eateries, cutting busboys isn’t the answer.

Heather Clanton, waitress at Egg Haven, 2562 Sycamore Road, believes busboys are essential.

“They’re always here; I don’t think we could survive without them,” Clanton said. “Busboys have the responsibilities of cleaning the tables, refilling coffee and water, restocking the dishes and cleaning them and also picking up anything that happens to break.”

Peter Panagakis, Egg Haven owner and manager, said busboys improve the cafe’s service.

“We’ve opted to stick with busboys; it provides better service and atmosphere,” Panagakis said.

He added that there are no immediate plans to cut busboys.

Junior history major Jesse Krilich agreed that busboys add value.

“Waitresses seem to be more involved with the customers when there are busboys present,” Krilich said.

She added that restaurants without busboys aren’t able to clean up as fast.

“At Olive Garden, the dishes sat out forever,” Krilich said. “They weren’t able to clean up after they gave us the check.”

Demi Sotiriou, sophomore criminology major and former Fontano’s Subs employee, experienced working without busboys.

“It makes it a lot harder, and we are not able to do as much, because you have to do everything,” Sotiriou said.

Deana Hanley, waitress at The Junction, 816 W. Lincoln Highway and junior accounting major, said the idea wouldn’t make sense financially.

“We would almost need more waitresses on the floor to make up for not having busboys,” Hanley said.