By the time you’re reading this, dine-in restaurants will have been closed for at least a month and a half — a huge blow to an industry operating on already slim margins. It’s a terrible situation on so many fronts, but there are things we the eaters can do to help save our restaurants, ensuring we still have good things to eat — and talented, skilled workers still have their jobs — when we return to our non-quarantined lives.
We asked leading restaurant owners and chefs how they responded to the COVID-19-induced closures and what diners can do to support the most delicious of industries during and coming out of the coronavirus crisis. Because our local restaurants need our help, and we need our local restaurants.
Juan Padró, Culinary Creative restaurant group, which includes Bar Dough, Señor Bear and Highland Tap & Burger
Even during this dire time for his industry, Juan Padró sees good things coming out of the COVID-19-induced closures.
“In times of struggle, you’ve got to band together,” Padró says. “A lot of times in the restaurant business we’re so busy and focused on our own thing, but right now we have to rely on one another and each other’s innovation and skills. Everybody’s kind of stepping up, and that’s an awesome thing.”
He hopes that that camaraderie sticks, as independent restaurant owners are only made stronger by working together. He envisions a Denver restaurant scene where local owners collaborate to gain increased buying power and raise funds to aid workers when things like, say, global pandemics shut down business.
As these restaurants (hopefully) emerge from their months-long forced hibernation later this month, Padró likens their re-opening to starting a new business. Which means that we eaters need to be patient and supportive as they get things running again.
“The general public is really seeing how important restaurants are to the community. Beyond just cooking food, we’re feeding frontline workers, feeding the homeless, helping kids who rely on school lunches for food, working with shelters, working with nonprofits. I think those things are often taken for granted. I think restaurants can come out of this with a really defined role in society.”
Bobby Stuckey, co-founder Frasca Food & Wine, Tavernetta, Pizzeria Locale, Sunday Vinyl
Bobby Stuckey didn’t want to unnecessarily expose his workers to COVID-19, so he closed all of the restaurants in the interest of employee health and safety. So what did he do with his newfound downtime? Oh, he just got to work saving the restaurant industry, that’s all. No big deal.
Worried that restaurants wouldn’t survive the extensive dine-in closures, Stuckey helped form a huge coalition of independent restaurants across the country and got their interests heard by congress for the first time. All in the hopes of making sure that after all of this is over, our favorite restaurants will still exist.
“We (independent restaurants) have been around for so long, we’re so much a part of the American ecosystem, but we just never had a voice,” Stuckey says. “It’s ironic that an industry that makes up so much of the private sector had literally zero voice in DC. And had we not gotten involved, there would have been zero voice involved in the stimulus plan. There wouldn’t have been anything for small businesses.”
The group is called the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC), and its mission is to save our local restaurants. Stuckey and a few other founding members formed the group — which as of early April, counts nearly 11,000 members, including award-winning chefs and restaurant owners — on the fly in response to the closures. They started a website, saverestaurants.com, to make people aware of these small restaurants’ huge impact on our economy. Accounting for up to four percent of total GDP and employing 11 million nationwide, it’s about time that restaurants, the lifeblood of our communities, had a voice to affect policy change.
And when restaurants can once again re-open, what can we diners do to help them survive?
“Give up all those newfound home cooking skills that you’ve practiced for the last six weeks, put a padlock on the refrigerator and just eat out for all your meals,” Stuckey jokes. “Really, the best thing the diner can do is go out to your favorite restaurant and have a good time. The independent restaurant industry is such a fragile industry. Hopefully, this brings that to light and we can do better moving forward.”
Dave Query, Big Red F Restaurant Group, which includes The Post Brewing Co., The West End Tavern, Jax Fish House, Lola Coastal Mexican and Zolo
“Everyone open and serving food right now along the Front Range is doing their very best to pivot and continue to be of service to our communities,” Dave Query says, and he knows. Both Zolo and The Post Rosedale turned their porches into pop-up farm stands to distribute Boulder County Farmers Markets goods on Saturdays; Zolo’s kitchen has been dedicated to making meals for Big Red F’s 670 furloughed employees as well as healthcare workers via the Feed the Frontlines Boulder program; and The West End Tavern and all Post locations have been open for ramped-up carryout and delivery. That’s a lot of change in a short period of time.
How we can help while dine-in restaurants are closed, Query says, is to buy gift cards. Restaurants need the cash now to get through this difficult period, and — bonus! — diners get more bang for their buck because many merchants are giving additional amounts and perks on purchases.
It’s been impressive and inspiring to watch how quickly restaurants have switched gears during all of this — some acting as social distancing-friendly markets; others as ground-zero prep kitchens to aid those in need — but what we really miss is the formerly normal experience of going out to eat.
“You can’t recreate that experience in Zoom or at home,” Query says. “That sense of being in an electric environment, eating good food, and having that experience with family and friends — just awesome. We will be back. And restaurants will again serve the communities we are in in all the various ways we do. We are a scrappy bunch, us restaurant folk — we will survive — and with our incredible guests who support us so well, we will live to fight another day.”
Kevin Daly, Mountain Sun, Southern Sun, Vine Street, Longs Peak Pub, and Under the Sun
Kevin Daly voluntarily closed his Mountain Sun pubs for dine-in service just before the statewide closures hit. After a week and a half of successful curbside takeout business, he realized that the stress and worry was taking a toll on employees’ health and well-being, so he shut that down as well. His new focus? Get people back into the local, independent restaurants once this is all over.
“Just prior to the COVID crisis, many local restaurants were experiencing tough times due to increased competition from chains and large out-of-state restaurant groups. Hopefully, Coloradans will support the small local restaurants that are more authentic and meaningful to them after the crisis is over,” Daly says.
The best things diners can do to help their meaningful restaurants survive and re-open, he says, is to buy gift cards, contribute to fundraising campaigns to get employees paid, and give their dining dollars to those smaller spots that are entwined in the community.
“It has been amazing to see how helpful and close the Colorado restaurant community has been to each other,” Daly says. “There has been so much collaboration, communication, support and sharing. I’ve been blown away by the generosity of the local restaurant owners and employees.”
