Restaurants need more help
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | AUG. 6-12, 2021 13
BY AMANDA COHEN
Restaurants and bars
around New York appear to be
coming back to life. I look up
from my station and see a dining
room full of people talking,
laughing, eating and celebrating,
and my world feels alive
for the first time in over a year.
Vaccinations and loosening government
restrictions appear to
have resuscitated the nation’s local
restaurants and bars and yet
our industry is far from making
it through the pandemic.
Neighborhood restaurants
and bars are dying in plain
sight.
Independent restaurants
and bars have scratched and
clawed for the past 16 months
— doing everything possible to
continue serving our communities.
I had to fire my 30 employees
and re-invent Dirt Candy as
a fast casual restaurant, serving
sandwiches and salads, doing
takeout and delivery, serving
my guests on the side of what’s
essentially a highway, sometimes
in the middle of weather
so cold I had to wear a snowsuit
to bring them their food. I did
it all with a staff of six. But I’m
lucky. Many restaurants I know
had to do more with even less.
But our pandemic-long battle
has come at a cost — restaurants
and bars have lost over
$280 billion since the start of the
pandemic.
For many of my colleagues,
the immediate financial hardship
imposed by the pandemic
was simply too much to keep
their businesses afloat. Over
90,000 had no choice but to close
their doors, but those of us who
are still open are barely hanging
on. Thirty-nine percent of
restaurants cannot pay their
June rent — these missed supplier,
rent and utility payments
are creating a mountain of debt
that will soon come due.
Many restaurants are still
struggling with headwinds
brought on by the pandemic.
Guests are still hesitant to return
to the dining room as 36
percent of diners will not resume
their regular dining behavior
until at least after September
2021. Costs necessary
for running a restaurant are
rising. The prices of many food
items increased between April
and May of 2021, such as beef
and veal (10.5 percent), grains
(25.7 percent) and cooking oils
(9.3 percent).
Even if our dining rooms are
packed night after night, our low
margin businesses will not be
able to climb out of the hole the
pandemic has placed us in. Back
rent, purveyors bills and all the
debt that has accrued over the
past year is coming due. We will
have no choice but to close our
doors, causing a New York economic
crisis that threatens New
York’s $51.6 billion economy,
50,153 small businesses, and the
966,600 leisure and hospitality
workers we support.
There is hope for New York’s
restaurants and bars. Earlier
this year, President Biden
signed the Restaurant Revitalization
Fund (RRF), a $28.6
billion federal grant program
based on the RESTAURANTS
Act, a $120 billion grant program
designed by the neighborhood
bar and restaurant
owners from the Independent
Restaurant Coalition to help
businesses like mine survive
the pandemic.
The RRF was massively
successful and widely popular.
In just three and a half weeks,
more than 278,000 restaurants
and bars applied, requesting
over $72 billion. I was one of the
many eager applicants hoping
this program would provide
my businesses with the relief I
needed to keep my doors open
and continue living my dream.
Unfortunately, my business was
not one of those chosen.
Restaurants and bars always
knew that $28.6 billion was
never going to be enough. We
asked for $120 billion last year
and one point of sale application
estimates that restaurants and
bars are eligible for at least $168
billion in RRF grants.
There is some hope on the
horizon. In both chambers of
Congress, there is a $60 billion
bill that would refill the RRF
and it is rapidly gaining bipartisan
support. Our representatives
need to fight for our beleaguered
industry now so we can
survive and continue to serve
our neighbors, energize our regional
economies and drive our
supply chains. Failing to refill
the RRF will cause an employment
crisis that will disproportionately
affect single mothers,
people of color, immigrants,
young people and the formerly
incarcerated, crippling an industry
that provides ladders of
opportunity without extreme
barriers to entry.
Read more at QNS.com.
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