There Is an Immediate Need for the State to Help the Restaurant Industry — Restaurateur Mello

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Leonard Mello, Proprietor Tavolo Wine Bar

 

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Tavolo Wine Bar

Although as a business community representing thousands of laid-off employees and small businesses that are on the brink of closing for good I am disappointed about the announcement regarding the postponed opening of restaurants until at least April 17, this does not come as a surprise. As you consider options for the future opening at this point I am trying to advocate for a scaled-back opening sooner, possibly April 6th.

Restaurants were one of the first industries that were closed down and taken the brunt of the economic impact of this closure.  As you noted in your recent press conference, retail operations have not been closed and seem to be business as normal with many actually having increased sales (liquor stores, grocery, department stores)  People are allowed to shop retail and grocery yet they are not allowed to shop their restaurants? As responsible business owners I know we would be very strict about assuring appropriate social distancing between guests and there would be a strict limit of people at any time. Allowing a gradual reopening of even 20% of licensed capacity can assure safe distancing of guests and would allow servers and kitchen help back to work and start making meaningful wages again while allowing business owners to generate much-needed capital for fixed costs that are not ceasing during the closing.  

We can not continue to operate under this take out model as it is not financially viable for many restaurants and does not allow enough activity for the majority of laid-off workers to be able to get back to work. After a week of takeout only, it's clear that this model is not sustainable and will result in many restaurants ceasing operations without a guarantee of re-opening.  As was noted in the recent article, even some of the legacy restaurants in Rhode Island (Uncle Tony's, Twin Oaks, Siena, etc) do not see the takeout only option as providing the necessary income to survive and as noted we are all essentially losing more money under this model than being closed. 

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With takeout only and even with the ability to sell wine and beer to go, we are still only seeing revenues at around 20% of normal operations!  To entice shoppers to buy wine and beer we have had to substantially discount the wine in order to even obtain those sales which are not adding anything to the bottom line at that point. Our restaurants have had to ask for rent and utility deferrals and have been paying bills that are only critical to the takeout side of the business as we try to stay alive. We have had to layoff 55 employees as a result of the new restaurant regulations which represent 90% of our total staff. Most of these workers are servers with children and families at home that rely on the daily income they generate from gratuities. The unemployment income they are receiving does not come close to replacing this income and I know many are struggling to stay afloat.  Without the ability to open on even a limited scale, the takeout model simply can not assist the majority of these staff members who are hit the hardest. 

I have been reaching out to State/Local leaders the past few weeks and it just seems that there is nobody advocating on behalf of the restaurant industry, it's workers and small business owners. Those in this industry work tireless hours, many times for little money, and to see an industry ripped apart without any questioning or real answers is upsetting and quite frankly disrespectful to us in this industry who contribute so much to the State's economy both directly through State and Local taxes and through its contribution to tourism.  I have proposed/asked numerous times why can't similar provisions given to retail be applied to the restaurant industry and have not heard anyone reach back out to me (not the State or Local Leaders nor the local associations) other than State Rep Bell who expressed is his frustration as well.  There are decisions being made with zero input from the people it impacts and I can't understand why there isn't any word getting out there from this side of the industry. 

Why are other restaurants and those representing our voices not getting the word out on the struggles this industry is in and the verge of collapse we are heading towards without action.  I am getting close to the point that our Providence location will not re-open as a result of this. Federal Hill has already lost business and customers over the years due to the violence and crime in the area so we were already running on tight margins. 

I am aware that there are SBA opportunities out there and there is "funding to support small businesses" coming from this stimulus 3.0 package, however, those are not going to be immediate impacts and will most likely come through in a matter of weeks/months at a time where it may be too late for many of us.  We can not rely on future promises of loans or assistance to be able to continue to operate. The financial hardships are real and impacting us all now. At some point, we as a society, as a State and as a community need to start moving towards getting back to being open for business. We need to be aware and respectful of the new norm that would be the Covid-19.  Just like the precautions we take for other contagious diseases, we as business owners and community members need to be careful and vigilant going forward while balancing the need to get thousands of laid-off workers back to work so they can have the ability to care for themselves and their families.

 

- Leonard Mello owns Tavolo Wine Bars in Warwick, Providence and Smithfield

 

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