Employee retention is a persistent challenge in the restaurant industry. Business owners are particularly concerned because frequent staff departures can disrupt operations, increase training costs, and ultimately threaten business profitability. Grounded in Herzberg's two-factor theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry study was to identify restaurant owners' effective retention strategies in Birmingham, AL. Data sources included semistructured interviews, public data such as disseminated reports and websites, Book, including books, and peer-reviewed articles.