New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
CT restaurant workers plan to protest at gov’s residence
In the final days of his service in the Connecticut National Guard this spring, Dustin Amore helped to inventory and distribute ventilators to other states, mostly in New York, by his telling.
Next Monday, the 30year-old head bartender at Conspiracy in Middletown has other plans — to bang on a pan outside Gov. Ned Lamont’s Hartford residence.
“The current plan is we’re assembling, restaurant workers or supporters of the like… to try and plead for relief from the state government,” Amore said Tuesday.
The protest comes as the Connecticut Restaurant Association said last week that more than 600 food service establishments have closed amid the pandemic
The group plans to meet at Elizabeth Park in Hartford at 10 a.m. Monday and walk to the governor’s mansion on Prospect Street, according to a Facebook event created by Amore and others.
So far, 71 people had marked themselves as attending, Amore said Tuesday. Another 227 had marked that they were interested; 93 people had shared the planned rally.
The description for the event took particular issue with Dr. Manisha Juthani, who joined Lamont during his twice-weekly virtual press conference on Monday.
During the news conference, Juthani said she had been part of a group of doctors who sent a letter to Lamont asking him to close gyms and indoor dining at restaurants as hospitalizations for COVID-19 rise.
Juthani described eating indoors at a restaurant as “very risky,” and suggested people should get takeout and tip well as an alternative.
Lamont, for his part, has resisted imposing further restrictions on restaurants after tightening indoor capacity from 75 percent back down to 50 percent early last month. The rules also added a 10 p.m. curfew for restaurants to cease dine-in service, though takeout can continue later.
Amore cited the curfew, as well as a mandate that restaurants serve food along with alcohol, as cutting into restaurants “razorthin” profit margins. Res
taurants that rely more heavily on alcohol sales with their higher profit margins than the 35 percent they earn on food sales are particularly, exposed, he pointed out.
“Not every guest wants to sit down and consume a full meal before they enjoy one of our cocktails,” he said.
That has forced the restaurant to reinvent itself three times due to restrictions, even going to DIY kits for its drinks, Amore said.
During recent press conferences, the governor has shown reluctance to issue further restrictions, noting
that any change Connecticut makes without the support of surrounding states may simply push people elsewhere.
Pushed about what metrics would determine such a move, Lamont has said he would look to the state’s remaining hospital capacity, but has not given a hard number that would trigger a more restrictions.
The governor announced restaurants would go to takeout only and bars would close on March 16, when there were just 41 known cases of COVID-19 in the state, though testing at the time was far less available than
it would later become.
On Nov. 2, the day Lamont announced the state would rollback restrictions on indoor-dining, 340 people were hospitalized for the virus in the state. As of Tuesday, the number stands at 1,223 — still below the peak of 1,972 the state reached in April.
Scott Dolch of the Connecticut Restaurant Association said 1,000 to 1,500 food service establishments could be lost in the coming weeks.
Amore, who repaired helicopters in the National Guard before leaving the service in May, admitted Tuesday the governor might direct his calls for relief towards the federal government, which the governor has chastized for inaction.
Hartford has pledged $50 million in grants for small businesses from the federal CARES ACT, but the money is less than that Dolch and other business leaders have asked for.
Asked about what relief he could offer to restaurants, Lamont has pointed to allowing them to stay open despite the pandemic.
But Amore suggested that isn’t enough.
“Being open isn’t relief when we’re being financially strangled,” he said.