EATERIES LOBBY FOR AID
While restaurants reopen at half capacity, restaurateurs lobby for aid
The Breadfruit & Rum Bar has been closed for months, but chef and co-owner Danielle Leoni hasn’t given up on the restaurant industry. ● On July 17, Leoni opened the Breadfruit & Rum Bar for its first jerk chicken pop-up event since the restaurant closed in March. These periodic takeout events aren’t profitable for her, but they support her friend and local chicken farmer, Dave Jordan from Two Wash Ranch, who’s been struggling with inconsistent demand, Leoni said. ● It shouldn’t, however, be up to individuals alone to bear the cost of supporting the food industry, she said.
‘I want the long-term win’
While her downtown Phoenix restaurant was closed, Leoni, who heads the Arizona Small Restaurant Coalition, lobbied Gov. Doug Ducey and state lawmakers to pass measures that would support small, independent restaurants during and after the coronavirus pandemic.
Now four months into the public health crisis, some of the safety nets the group successfully fought for have come to an end.
On March 31, Gov. Doug Ducey announced all liquor license fees will be deferred for 90 days. Those 90 days are over.
On April 6, Ducey ordered commercial landlords to avoid evictions in the next two months. He also encouraged landlords to delay or adjust rent payments. Those two months are also over.
What happens to restaurants affects not only the owners but also their suppliers and workers, Leoni said. Arizona employs more than 300,000 people in restaurant and food service jobs, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Leoni believes the government, which has bailed out big banks and auto companies in the past, should budget more aid for independent businesses.
That’s why she and the Arizona Small Restaurant Coalition are asking the public to pressure lawmakers into supporting the RESTAURANTS Act, which would provide billions of dollars in relief to small restaurants and bars — not large chains and publicly traded companies that benefited from the previous CARES Act relief.
“I see all my colleagues, friends trying to reopen,” Leoni said. “They’re just faltering. They’re closing again.”
“I want the long-term win,” Leoni continued. “Not immediate satisfaction. I have to open at 100% capacity. This 50% or 25% doesn’t do me any good. The only way to get to 100% is if we suppress COVID. So let’s do it please, so we can move forward with our lives.”
What is the RESTAURANTS Act?
The RESTAURANTS Act is a bipartisan bill that would establish $120 billion in relief to food service or drinking establishments through December 31, 2020.
The House and Senate introduced the legislation in June. As of July 20, there were nearly 100 co-sponsors, including four Democrats from Arizona: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Reps.Tom O’Halleran, Greg Stanton and Ruben Gallego.
For the program’s initial period, only food and beverage businesses that have an annual revenue of less than $1.5 million would be eligible for grants. The Treasury must also prioritize awarding grants to marginalized and underrepresented communities.
A business is ineligible if:
● It’s part of a chain or franchise with 20 or more locations doing business under the same name, regardless of the type of ownership at the locations.
● It’s publicly traded.
● It’s part of a state or local government facility, not including an airport.
The grant amount would be reduced if the business has already received an emergency grant or paycheck protection loan under the CARES Act.
The Paycheck Protection Program came under criticism when news outlets revealed that hundreds of large, publicly traded companies, including Shake Shack and the parent company of Ruth’s Chris Steak Houses, received millions of dollars in loans.
Republican Sen. Martha McSally responded on July 15 via email to a member of the Arizona Small Restaurants Coalition, who asked the Arizona senator to support the RESTAURANTS Act.
“Arizona’s restaurants are struggling because of social distancing policies implemented on a state level,” McSally wrote. “I will continue to assess the need for additional coronavirus related legislation to help mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic.”
Small business owners struggle
In January, Subash Yadav and his wife, Chandra, turned their passion project, a food truck serving Nepali dumplings, into a full-fledged restaurant called Sherpa Kitchen in Gilbert. About two months later, they closed their restaurant because of the pandemic.
Sherpa Kitchen switched to a takeout model after that, offering an adjusted menu and bags of frozen momos with cooking instructions. But business dropped 70 to 80% compared to when the dining room was open, Subash Yadav estimated.
He hopes the restaurant will make it past summer.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to last very long if we don’t get additional support from the government to help small business,” Yadav said.
Yadav said they received a paycheck protection loan and planned to reopen Sherpa Kitchen for dine-in after Ducey lifted restrictions. But when COVID-19 cases in Arizona spiked, they decided against it.
“I do want people to support us and get familiar with the food I grew up with and admire and love to cook,” Yadav said. “I want more and more people to try out the food, but the main thing is taking care of ourselves and family right now.”
Mochilero Kitchen, a family-owned Mexican restaurant in Peoria, has also been open for less than a year.
An extension and increased flexibility on the paycheck protection loan was helpful, said Jorge Cota, who opened the restaurant with his sister Meliza Miranda in April. But opening dine-in services at 50% or less capacity isn’t sustainable in the long run, once the cost of labor and operation are factored in, he said.
“If this lasts longer than a year, even at 50% capacity, even the most successful restaurants will go under,” Cota said. “That’s the sad truth.”
Mochilero Kitchen closed July 3 temporarily after an employee tested positive for COVID-19 but will reopen for takeout only, Cota said. He has since gotten the restaurant professionally sanitized and found a clinic where he could get his staff tested within a few days of the restaurant’s closing, he said.
Opening at full capacity won’t happen until people come together to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Cota said. That means making compromises for the greater good of the community, such as wearing a mask, he said.
“It’s not a joke,” Cota said. “People’s lives are at stake. Right now it’s important to make people secure.”
Hospitality workers call for help
Business owners aren’t the only ones feeling the financial strain. As the public health crisis continues, workers are left in the lurch, uncertain of when they can feel safe to return to work — or choosing to work with the risk anyway.
That choice may become even harder late this month, when the additional $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits expires. That will leave Arizonans with between about $120 and $240 a week, instead of as much as $840 a week, unless Congress agrees to extend federal payments.
On July 16, hospitality workers circled the Capitol in their cars and called for Gov. Ducey to raise the cap on the state’s weekly jobless benefits from $240 to $490. Workers are also allowed to earn a maximum of $30 a week and still qualify for unemployment benefits. Protesters called on Ducey to raise the weekly maximum from $30 to $300.
Backers argued this would help people who might be able to go back to work but who have seen hours drastically reduced.
State Rep. Athena Salman, D-Tempe, said increasing benefits would help Arizonans who are facing the difficult decision between losing their home or going back to work even though it may not be safe.
Donald Ameden said he cannot afford unemployment benefits of $240 a week.
He was laid off from his job at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, where he worked for the in-flight catering company LSG Sky Chefs.
The job had medical benefits, and the company agreed to offer his job back when the time’s right, Ameden said. But if he takes another job, he forfeits that opportunity, he said.
‘Tell them to save restaurants’
While the Breadfruit & Rum Bar remains closed, co-owners Leoni and her husband, Dwayne Allen, are pivoting their new beverage company, Big Marble Organics, to a national market to bring in revenue from outside Arizona.
Other restaurants and bars that have been closed since the March shutdown reopened recently under new takeout models.
Award-winning bars Century Grand and Bitter & Twisted launched canned and bottled cocktails for pickup orders. James Beard Award nominee chef Silvana Salcido Esparza permanently closed one of her restaurants during the pandemic, Barrio Café Gran Reserva in the Grand Avenue Arts District. She recently reopened her other restaurant Barrio Cafe for delivery, eschewing third-party services to deliver food herself.
But the financial responsibility to save restaurants and bars shouldn’t rest on takeout customers alone, Leoni said. The public needs to pressure the state and federal government, which control the budget, to manage the crisis, she said.
“It’s not up to the individual to fund your favorite places to eat and drink,” Leoni said. “Their responsibility is to be active in legislation and engaged so that people we elected know what we want.”
The Arizona Small Restaurant Coalition, as part of the national Independent Restaurant Coalition, is launching an online and offline campaign with three ways the public can ask their legislators to co-sponsor and support the RESTAURANTS Act:
1 Post a photo of their favorite restaurant or bar on social media and tag Arizona lawmakers, with hashtags #SaveAZFaves, #RestaurantsActNow and #SaveRestaurants.
2 Send a pre-written letter to lawmakers using a form available online.
3 Working with restaurants to add a paper flier about the RESTAURANTS Act to their takeout orders, with QR code that takes customers to more information.
“If we want to save restaurants, we just simply have to tell them to save restaurants,” Leoni said.
People can follow the Arizona Small Restaurant Coalition on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates.