While Congress negotiates a package that would include new emergency cash to keep the airline industry afloat, there is no expectation that money will be set aside for restaurants, and the small business funds included in the deal are an imperfect solution for the restaurant industry .
A slightly edited version of the email exchange is below.
LEE: Back then, in March and April 2020, I never thought this pandemic shutdown would last so long. I was optimistic then, but not now. It has become so gloomy and hopeless, I have trouble keeping my head above water.
I used to have a vibrant restaurant group employing hundreds of people and now it’s a long way from where we were eight months ago.
I’ve had to close two restaurants, but I’m afraid more will close before it’s all said and done. In DC, of the two Succotash locations, one is open and the other in Penn Quarter temporarily closed and we hope to reopen in the spring.
The end of independent restaurants
LEE: It means that we will lose the culture of all our American cities.
It took decades and so much blood, sweat and tears for every American chef, bartender, manager, waiter, busboy, dishwasher, and hospitality worker to create this amazing restaurant renaissance in America.
We were the envy of the world and every independent restaurant was at the center of communities, income-generating tourism, and a dynamic culture that people loved and supported. We will lose so much of that and we will become a nation of corporate restaurant chains that look and taste the same in every city. We will lose the culture of regionalism and civic pride in every city in America.
The pulse of American cities, deserted
WHAT DOES IT DO: Why can’t independent restaurants bounce back after the pandemic ends?
LEE: Independent restaurants have so much debt, have gone out of business, are out of the question. We were cultural institutions, just like museums, but a living, breathing physical location where people felt the energy and heartbeat of a city.
We represent the culture of a city just as much as a museum. But unlike museums, we are not financed by the federal government, we do not receive tax breaks, we are not heralded as the beacon of city tourism.
We contribute to society in so many ways, but we are treated in the same way as a company that sells toilet paper. We work with razor-thin margins because we really enjoy what we do and we really love our cities and towns. But we are left in our most critical time of need. I don’t see how we recover from this both financially and spiritually.
Helping restaurant workers and farms
WHAT DOES IT DO: You have been an activist trying to raise money to help restaurant workers as well as the farmers and producers who supply restaurants. How are these projects doing so many months after this pandemic?
LEE: We’ve served more than a million meals in more than 25 cities, we’ve given nearly $ 1 million in grants to small farms across America. We fed the families of Louisville public schools, giving over 30,000 toys to restaurant workers who couldn’t afford Christmas for their children.
We just launched a program to also feed live concert attendants in four major US cities. We have spent nearly $ 4 million dollars in direct aid since March. And we don’t intend to stop until there is light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel.
It takes thousands of meals to pay for a new outdoor dining setup
WHAT DOES IT DO: I’ve seen places investing money in street-side yurts and even more complicated installations for eating al fresco in winter. How well does that really work out for the bottom line?
LEE: Every restaurant is different. We invested $ 8,000 in outdoor dining structures, but we were stopped by the cold winter temperatures. Stoves consume expensive gas, structures are expensive and PPE are now extremely expensive. Asking our staff to run in and out of the cold is just plain cheeky. Every step of a restaurant’s service becomes more expensive when we have to serve meals out of the house.
Do you know how many meals you have to sell to earn back the money for eating outside? There are thousands of them. We scramble our way to earn just enough to pay our staff and yet we only lose more money with each new disability. It is impossible to navigate.
The supply chain has changed
WHAT DOES IT DO: Last spring, we saw a lot of supply disruptions and professional suppliers refocusing to sell to home cooks. Has that relapsed? If not, will it?
LEE: Prices have skyrocketed for basic items – toilet paper, sanitary pads, sanitizer. Beef prices have become unsustainable. Special items are scarce. When we place orders with our suppliers, we have no idea what’s actually going to come. Sometimes we get 75% of what we ordered which is a good day, sometimes it’s only 50%. Do you know how difficult it is to write a menu for our customers when we have no idea what’s coming into our kitchens? And restaurants trying to use organic vegetables and meat are being challenged even more. So many farms we love have drastically reduced their supply. We cannot have the beautiful meat and produce that was once abundant.
Advice for home cooks
WHAT DOES IT DO: People are now used to cooking more at home. As a cook, is that okay, or would you prefer people to order extra if they live somewhere they can?
LEE: It’s nice that they cook at home. It gives people a sense of how difficult it really is to cook and serve a great meal. I hear from so many of my clients that they have found a newfound appreciation for chefs after cooking three meals a day for weeks. I really think so many people are willing to just go to a restaurant and have chefs cook for them for a change.
WHAT DOES IT DO: Has the pandemic changed eating habits? And maybe I’m just reaching for something positive to ask you, but have you noticed food innovations?
LEE: I think the general public misses restaurants so much. Every time we reopen after a shutdown, we are inundated with calls. Lots of people have improved their home cooking game which is a great byproduct of Covid. But they also understand that they cannot cook at home every night and that the prices most restaurants charge are a value compared to the cost and energy of hosting friends at home.
Hypocrites at the French laundry
LEE: It’s an insulting slap in the face. For any politician who hasn’t taken a pay cut and then turn around and announce policies that literally destroy families and force people into poverty and then blatantly circumvent their own laws by eating out is so bizarre it’s beyond comprehension .
I have nothing against anyone who dines at French Laundry. If you have the money, please go out and spend as much money as possible on good food because we have to save them too. But as a civil servant, your role is much more important. In times of so much despair and struggle, we look to you for guidance, for hope, we trust you can nurture us for a brighter future. This hypocrisy boils down to the fact that the Roman emperors throw rotten meat at their own people while feasting on the spoils of war. They were eventually punished and so were our current politicians who refuse to listen to our cry for help.