National Post (National Edition)
ripples FROM A RESTAURANT
Effects of COVID felt from tables to fields Ryan Tumilty, Photography by Jean Levac
OTTAWA • Ivan Gedz’s downtown Ottawa restaurant felt the effects of coronavirus even before the provincial government ordered businesses closed, before takeout became the only way to get a meal you didn’t cook yourself.
Before people were ordered away, they were staying away and Gedz was seeing it in the receipts.
“We were seeing a significant 10 to 15 per cent drop each of the nights leading up to the final week and then we were seeing 20 to 25 per cent drops.”
But the closure of Union Local 613, a popular restaurant just a few blocks from Parliament Hill that has been open since 2012, didn’t just affect Gedz and his employees.
There are ripples from such shutdowns: Farmers seeing a plunge in demand for their crops and a future harvest in doubt; farm workers transitioning to new roles; breweries adapting to accommodate more people drinking at home and, behind it all, people’s uncertainty about what comes next.
Most importantly, this wasn’t just one closure, not just one ripple in the pond. Businesses across Canada have been forced to close their door as a quarry full of rocks crashed into the water due to COVID-19.
Union Local 613 focuses on refined southern cuisine with local ingredients, and has an extensive cocktail list with a special bar hidden behind a fake bookcase.
Gedz closed his doors on March 15, a day before the province’s mandated closure, after a disastrous Saturday night. Gedz took his regular staff of nine on a Saturday down to just three, but still the final night’s take fell too far.
“We were down 70 per cent.”
Faced with totals like that he had no choice, but to let all 20 people on his payroll go.
“I didn’t know how the government was going to roll out the program or unemployment, but I wanted to at least get my employees first to the trough, if possible.”
He initially didn’t plan to offer takeout, but faced with an extended closure it became the only way to keep some money coming in. It took some time to redesign his menu, but service started this past week and he has called five employees back to work on that model.
But that brings new challenges.
Ontario has allowed restaurants to deliver alcohol during the closures and Gedz plans to offer cocktail delivery, but that has proven easier said than done. “Plastic food-grade bottles are in extremely short supply,” he said.
He said he has trouble with the business models of online delivery apps, which take big commissions from sales, but he fears their popularity is only going to grow even after restaurants can reopen.
“There is going to still be a demand and an increased demand for those applications merely because people are going to be used to them.”
Gedz has taken advantage of the government’s loan programs and said he’s been fortunate to have a landlord willing to use the commercial rent subsidy.
He said he doesn’t know what the landscape will look like for restaurants.
“We will definitely be able to reopen. The question is whether the decisions we made were made correctly, and whether we will be able to service the debts.”
A survey by the industry group Restaurants Canada at the beginning of the crisis in March, found one in 10 restaurants didn’t expect to reopen. Gedz said he expects that number will turn out to be optimistic.
“I would suggest it is going to be at least three in ten restaurants if not higher,” he said.
Sadly, that might be the only thing that keeps his business viable when restaurants can start serving again.
“It is almost a waiting game. If there is a contraction in the number of competitors, friendly or otherwise, that means there is less options for consumers.”
Abacus Data released a poll Wednesday saying 30 per cent of Canadians don’t intend to return to a restaurant until a vaccine is available. Another seven per cent would return already, while the majority, 63 per cent, are prepared to return under conditions like masks and social distancing being in place. Gedz said he doesn’t know what the new normal will be.
“How much have their dining patterns changed, how much have their lifestyle patterns changed?” he said. “I have no illusions, restaurants are your disposable income.”
FROM FARMS TO TABLES
Before COVID, part of that disposable income landed in the hands of Alex MackaySmith and his wife, Juniper Turgeon, who run Juniper Farms, just on the other side
of the provincial border nestled in the Gatineau Hills near Wakefield, Que.
In their 15-years in business as a certified organic farm, they have sold to a variety of customers, but restaurants like Union were essential.
“Two thirds of our clients are restaurants, so when this news came through it was a real shocker to us,” said Mackay-Smith.
At Juniper, they grow dozens of different crops on their 200-acre plot; onions and heirloom tomatoes, they sell eggs in their store from chickens that walk around the farm. There are collard greens, garlic, strawberries, celery and pumpkins growing in the field depending on the time of year.
They supply restaurants across Ottawa, from Union to the Chàteau Laurier.
When the closures were announced, Mackay-Smith said they didn’t know what to expect, but they decided to plant more or less like normal.
“Farmers are gamblers and I could have cashed in my chips, but I have decided to play the game for this season of unknown,” he said. “We had to make decisions, we had to start seedlings in our greenhouses. It takes a while to farm, it’s not like food just happens.”
Initially, in the wake of the closures, the farm’s store was a bustling place as people flocked to get fresh produce. But that surge came with a problem. The staff working in the store are the same who work on the farm and without them the farm isn’t able to plant and harvest its crop.
“It slowly dawned on us that if we want to continue this season we can’t have hundreds of people coming on the farm and our staff potentially getting exposed,” he said. “We made a call at Juniper Farm to close our store and at the same time we pivoted as soon as we could and started an online store.”
The online store allows customers to pick up produce at the farm gate and they’re also partnering with several local farms to offer a regular box full of locally grown food that can be delivered to homes.
Prior to COVID-19, this was going to be an expansion year, with plans to drain a flooded portion of the land to make it suitable for planting.
“That is a $70,000 project and we were going to do that this year, to expand our production but that has been put on hold.”
He said regardless of what happens next year’s crop will likely be smaller.
Mackay-Smith said the government’s wage subsidy won’t apply to help with staffing costs, because his revenue drop isn’t happening now. If it happens, it will happen at the harvest.
“Down the road, two or three months from now, I don’t know where I am going to move a thousand bunches of radishes.”
He said even next week he will harvest 45 kilograms of arugula, ordinarily easy to sell, mostly to restaurants, but he only has buyers lined up for a fraction of it.
The plants are in the field now, but he said if there isn’t a clear path to sell them soon, that’s where they will stay.
“Weeding it, maintaining it, harvesting it, that is a whole other onslaught of labour and if we aren’t able to move the food we are just going to till it in, drop it back into the soil.”
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $252 million program for the agricultural sector including a $50 million program fund to buy up unsold produce and redistribute to organizations like food banks feeding those who need it.
Mackay-Smith said depending on how it’s designed that program could be really helpful.
BEER TAPS RUN DRY
When the beer flows out of Union’s taps again some of it will be from Stalwart Brewing, a craft brewery just 50 kilometres away in Carleton Place, Ont.
Co-owner Adam Newlands, said surprisingly, in this pandemic, their business has been going strong.
“We have seen a groundswell of support because people want to make sure that we will make it through.”
The brewery began as a project with Newlands and a few friends in a garage. They were all staff at a local restaurant and they convinced their bosses to let them brew in the kitchen, putting their beer on the menu before finally branching out on their own, renting a former garage and turning it into Stalwart.
Stalwart last made news when a label for its popular Dr. Feelgood IPA was rejected by the LCBO, Ontario’s provincial liquor board. The board felt a picture of the Rod of Asclepius — a snake curled around a pole associated with the Greek god of medicine — suggested the beer had medicinal benefits. The beer was rebranded as Snake Oil IPA.
Restaurants, like Union, made up about a third of the brewery’s sales before the pandemic, but that loss of revenue has been mostly covered by people’s new found appreciation for drinking at home.
The brewery’s new home delivery option has been humming and cans have been flying off the shelves at LCBO stores.
He said filling one keg is much easier than the hundreds of cans, but it’s good to be working.
“It’s just a little more work, but we are happy we can be open and we can help people find a little more normalcy through these times.”
Stalwart has partnered with other local businesses in the community and is delivering its beer along with artisanal cheese and preserves.
He said he and his partners in the four-year-old brewery don’t have a crystal ball, but they’re hopeful their business will survive, maybe with a new avenue.
“It is making us look at our model a little bit differently, but we are thinking maybe this home delivery is going to be something that stays beyond this.”
There are also risks to this new reality. Newlands said all the brewers are suddenly canning more of their product than ever before and that is creating new worries.
“There are only two can suppliers in North America and they can get overrun in the summer, because the machines can only make so many cans.”
As for the future?
“It remains to be seen what the longer term impact will be, depending on how long restaurants are closed and what restaurants opening again looks like.”