Resa Solomon-St. Lewis

Baccanalle/Capital Fare Café

“It can be hard to split your time between taking care of the food and taking care of the paperwork. But as an owner and a chef, my most important commitment is to my staff. Restaurants didn’t just get together and decide we’re an essential service — we’re putting ourselves at risk to provide for our customers. Please think about that when you’re calculating your gratuities.

“Having a large portion of your inventory be volatile and perishable makes for additional challenges many people outside the industry don’t consider. How can you handle going into a lockdown with 48 hours’ notice and a fridge full of thousands of dollars worth of perishable product?”