BARELY HANGING ON
Restaurants struggle to survive the pandemic
A growing number of state and municipal officials are calling for a temporary ban on indoor dining — along with an aid package — as Massachusetts restaurants plead for help to survive what promises to be a bleak winter.
“The restaurant industry is one if there were further rollbacks or restrictions, that would be a really hardhit industry and one that employs a lot of people and creates a lot of vibrancy in any community,” Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo said. “The key is to make sure there is assistance available.”
With federal funding tied up in Washington, the chorus of calls for more state aid is growing.
“In the absence of sufficient federal aid, I recognize further restrictions will cause even more economic harm,” state Rep. Mike Connolly, D-Cambridge, wrote in a letter to Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday. “We need a state-level relief package that helps keep essential workers safe, encourages more people to stay home and provides a lifeline to our working families and small businesses.”
Few, if any, Massachusetts industries have been harder hit by the coronavirus than restaurants. One in four already have closed either temporarily or permanently since the onset of the pandemic last March, said Bob Luz, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, and hundreds of others are planning to close for the winter.
The association is working with the Baker administration and the state Legislature on ideas that could bring meaningful relief to the industry, Luz said, but short of any of them becoming a reality, Congress must pass a stimulus bill before the end of the year if restaurants are to weather the worst of the pandemic storm.
“They have to stop pointing fingers at each other and get something done before they go on recess because COVID doesn’t know what recess is,” Luz said.
“The outlook for the winter is dire,” he said. “We are in desperate need of a federal stimulus plan, and without it, we’re going to see massive losses of restaurants on Main Streets from Boston to Pittsfield, Newburyport to Provincetown and everywhere in between.”
Chris Coombs co-owns four Boston restaurants: Deuxave, Boston Chops, Boston Chops Downtown and dbar. All four were closed from March 17 to June 23, as directed by the state. But Boston Chops Downtown never reopened, and the other three only did so with reduced staffs. Before COVID-19, Coombs said, he had 237 employees in all; today, he has 43 full time and 15 part time.
“At this point, we’re not open for profit; we’re open to keep our team employed,” he said, “and we need the support of our guests and our government now more than ever.”
Some people don’t feel safe dining out, but contact tracing found that out of 35,000 new COVID-19 cases in the four-week period ending Dec. 5, only about 100 had any link to a restaurant, according to state data.
Yet as a result of the pandemic, only four of the eight Allston restaurants Doug Bacon owns are open, and he may have to temporarily close those four, he said, if there are further government restrictions and people continue to remain reluctant to eat out.
Like Coombs, he has had to lay off the majority of his employees — all but 50 of the 196 he had before the pandemic.
“Restaurants in Massachusetts are dying,” Bacon said. “Restaurants are unique. They’re not just places where people go to eat and drink. They’re part of the social fabric of communities. But without help, many restaurants will not be able to make it through this winter and will never reopen.”