BY JESSICA PARKS
Borough bar and restaurant owners
are pleading for long-overdue relief
to buoy their establishments until the
end of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s pretty bleak, it’s been a really
long and tumultuous road,” said Ivy
Mix, co-owner of Leyenda, a cocktail
bar in Carroll Gardens. “In general,
restaurants and bars are closing at an
ever-quickening rate. Stimulus from
the government hasn’t happened.”
With little to no help from the government
— and indoor dining now banned
— bar and restaurant owners across the
fi ve boroughs are advocating for aid at
the federal, state, and local levels along
with national organizations like the
Independent Restaurant Coalition and
more hyperlocal groups like Save NYC
Bars, which works to give business
owners a voice in city government.
One Brooklyn bar owner said she’s
joined the fi ght after seeing how out
of touch elected offi cials are with the
needs of restauranteurs.
“We were tired of people making
decisions for us that have no idea what
the decisions caused,” said Megan
Rickerson, the co-founder of Save NYC
Bars and the owner of Boerum Hill’s
COURIER L 22 IFE, DECEMBER 25-31, 2020
Someday Bar NYC.
Bars and restaurants are up against
a nearly year-long defi cit, and are trying
desperately to keep their doors open
while faced with restrictions dating back
to March, Rickerson said. Amid evolving
guidelines, advocates say the city’s formerly
burgeoning restaurant industry
needs direct fi nancial relief, as opposed
to loans that need to be paid back later
and moratoriums with end dates.
“We need a bailout, that’s what we
need,” said Mix. “We need a life vest,
and we are not getting it.”
Many of the city’s independent eateries
did not fi nd much relief in the federal
Paycheck Protection Program earlier
this year. The loans required recipients
to use 75 percent of the funds for payroll,
but many restaurant and bar owners
weren’t just struggling to pay their
employees, but also to pay for rent, food,
and other expenses, Mix said.
“PPP doesn’t really do much for bars
and restaurants, our staffi ng is much
different,” she said, adding that many
restaurants couldn’t justify holding onto
employees when the establishments had
to pivot to takeout only in the spring.
And while the latest $900 billion
relief package includes PPP modifi cations
that would allow for greater fl exibility
in how the money is spent, the
new deal isn’t much better, according
to advocates. Restaurant leaders instead
are pushing for the passage of
the Restaurants Act — a bill that would
funnel money directly to independent
restaurant and bar owners that would
not need to be paid back.
“It is specifi cally made to support
independent bars and restaurants,”
said Mix. “It is made to be a grant and
not a loan. I think it is the only way
restaurants will survive.”
The act earmarks $120 billion specifi
cally to help restaurants and bars
with fewer than 20 locations. Priority
would be given to minority- and
women-owned establishments — businesses
Mix said are most in need after
lenders shut many of them out.
“This disease is already disproportionately
affecting people of color,” Mix
said, “and they are less likely to ask for
help at the bank or get approved at a
bank because of the color of their skin.”
The timing is especially pertinent
as city bars and restaurants are currently
limited to take-out and outdoor
dining — and as winter weather threatens
the profi tability of the latter.
Restaurants are struggling to get by, prompting
leaders to call for comprehensive aid.
REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
“Indoor dining is closed. Our outdoor
seating is covered in snow,” Mix
said. “We can’t just make it work.”
More than 1,000 restaurants and
bars have closed citywide, and even
more are facing the same fate — something,
advocates warn, will have a ripple
effect throughout the food industry
if there is no direct fi nancial aid soon.
“It’s going to see bars across America
closed with millions of people unemployed,”
Mix said, “not including
the butchers, the liquor deliverers, and
the people who grow my eggs.”
‘We need a life vest’
Brooklyn restaurant, bar owners call for federal bailout