The word restaurant comes from the French word restaurer. Literally, it means to restore, therefore by lovely default, making those who work in restaurants...restorers. Famed NYC restaurateur Danny Meyer said he works in restaurants for the “rich and varied experiences," calling it the "'hospitality box' that allows people to create strong emotional skills like optimism, empathy, and work ethic, and build genuine human connection.” Anthony Bourdain said he cooked because “it was the purest way to give pleasure and connect with people, offering instant gratification and creating a noble and honorable pursuit of excellence, even if physically grueling.“
From all accounts and angles, running a restaurant seems to be both a challenging and physically grueling pursuit, especially in today’s economic time and place, especially in Boulder, Colorado. COVID left a nasty hangover that seems to be lingering. The hunkering down into comfy couches in front of giant TV screens during the pandemic taught normally adventurous and curious people how to order food delivery, watch movies, and kick it at home—much to the utter thrill and delight of Netflix and DoorDash, among others. In the restaurants, a lot of the amazing veteran servers, classic barkeeps, and long-time kitchen talent who recognized us when we walked in the door, knew where we wanted to sit and how we liked our many things cooked, poured, and served, have since left the industry entirely. And Colorado now sits as the #1 state in the country with declining restaurant visits year over year, one of the highest minimum wages in the US, lovingly paired with property tax and commercial rental rates at an all-time high.
If you read Reddit, Facebook, or NextDoor, you can’t avoid people complaining about parking and increasing meter rates, safety, trash, and the general dissatisfaction of the current town management and council around their support and higher standards of our retail districts. And the number of restaurants closing is outpacing the number of restaurants opening in the last few years, especially in nearby Denver.
So, it’s tough to say why restaurant people are still grinding it out, trying to find some sunshine through the clouds. Continuing day in and day out to get it clean, build it up, prepare for the day, and open the doors. Probably because they love what they do. They love the role they play in the community. They love the thread they add and the vitality they create in the noble and honorable pursuit of excellence, and the genuine human connection they receive from the effort. Restaurants make a town a town, generating jobs with a new generation of young lovers of true hospitality who are gaining life skills and work ethic, creating meeting and gathering spaces, building daily memory castles, and most importantly, inviting everyone and anyone to come in, relax, and restore. Visit a restaurant nearby soon, I bet they will be thrilled beyond your very own belief to see you.