are coping during COVID-19 upheaval TO BUST
(Left) Irene Siderakis, owner of Kellogg’s Diner in Williamsburg says her
business is in danger of closing due to COVID-19. (Above) Bridgeview Diner
in Bay Ridge has set up 25-30 tables in its parking lot.
Photo by Paul Frangipane (left) and John Singh (above)
COURIER LIFE, OCT. 16-22, 2020 5
the same timeframe last year
— which is even more than the
55 percent of all restaurants
who made the same claim.
The often family-owned
operations rely on dishing up
various kinds of comfort food
at all hours of day, meaning
they have to maintain a lot
more goods in stock than more
specialized restaurants.
“Diners offer anything under
the sun. If you want to get
oatmeal at midnight you can,
if you want to get a steak in
the morning you can,” Peers
said.
Reconfi guring her menus
alone will cost Siderakis thousands
of dollars by the end of
the year, from adjusting prices
due to early-outbreak food
shortages to buying disposable
paper menus to adhere to city
health guidelines.
“Something that used to
cost me $3,000 is going to cost
me $6,000 in a year,” she said.
Singh said his southern
Brooklyn staple pivoted to
their reduced take-out menu
and are not offering any chef
specials.
In addition to the cutbacks,
the mom-and-pop shops can’t
dip into funds as easily as
larger businesses or chains,
according to one city restaurant
expert.
“Many diners are familyowned,
they don’t have cash
reserves or corporations backing
them up,” said Andrew Rigie,
the executive director of
the New York City Hospitality
Alliance.
Rigie noted that the nostalgic
feel of the booths and
countertops that draw many
regulars to diners also doesn’t
work as well with tables and
chairs on the sidewalk.
“Many people go to diners
because they enjoy the coziness
and familiarity and that
doesn’t always translate to outdoor
dining,” he said.
Siderakis decided to set up
a small outdoor dining area at
the side of the building where
her dumpsters used to be, saying
the busy roadways around
her business were too dangerous
to let customers eat cheekto
jowl with car traffi c.
“I can’t put it on that intersection
— would you put your
family on that corner? I see
accidents in front of me every
day,” she said.
At Bridgeview, Singh and
his employees were lucky to
have plenty of space in their
parking lot to set up a tent
with 25-30 tables, which has
been a major boon during the
warmer months.
“Sometimes we get a full
house, thank God,” he said.
The owner of Parkway
Diner, a 45-year mainstay on
13th Avenue in Dyker Heights,
said she installed plexiglass
between booths in order to provide
a safer and less weatherdependent
option than their alfresco
setup.
“We didn’t have anything
before because we’re an oldschool
diner, but I’m trying
to keep up with the guidelines
and make people feel
safer about coming inside,”
said Elizabeth Pristouris. “We
have three or four folding tables
we can put outside if it’s a
nice day, but yesterday the big
winds took my canopy!”
The business owners
agreed that 25 percent indoor
dining won’t be enough to
hold them over as the colder
months approach and the state
has started reintroducing
forced closures due to worrying
COVID spikes in multiple
Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods.
“If up to December it
doesn’t come right, January
and February will be very
slow — those months are very
very hard months to survive, I
don’t think anybody can take
it that long,” said Singh.
“It’s just upsetting because
the clusters affect the city,
and the whole state. It’s just
not fair,” added Pristouris.
“People just want things to go
back to normal — and we’re all
hoping for the same thing.”
Peers called on Washington
to stop politicking and provide
more relief to businesses.
“Congress needs to act and
the fact that any type of aid
package has stalled in Congress
is unconscionable,” he
said. “If we lost diners it
would be a huge blow to the
culture and the greatness of
this borough and New York
City, they’re just part of our
fabric.”
Additional reporting by
Meaghan McGoldrick