NC restaurant owners make their case to Congress: We need COVID relief to survive
As North Carolina restaurants brace for a difficult winter, owners say they’re being left out in the cold.
On Tuesday, a panel of some of the state’s most prominent restaurant owners took their pains to Congress, joining Rep.-elect Deborah Ross, a Wake County Democrat, and Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer to discuss the challenges and needs of one of the pandemic’s hardest hit industries.
At issue is the gulf between what is being proposed for businesses in recent stimulus bill talks and what restaurants say they need. Namely, current proposals call for a renewal of the Paycheck Protection Program, a small business loan meant to cover rent and payroll expenses. A large portion of PPP funds could be forgiven if certain requirements were met.
Restaurant owners, though, say increasing debt is not their answer.
“We need Congress to guarantee loan forgiveness for restaurants that have suffered such enormous revenue losses,” said Cheetie Kumar, who owns Garland restaurant and music venues King’s and Neptune’s in downtown Raleigh. Together, those businesses are down 80% from the year before, she said. “We don’t see a way of making that revenue up. ... Asking a small business like us to take on more debt at this point is the last nail in our coffin.”
The Restaurants Act
Blumenauer is sponsoring the Restaurants Act, a $120-billion relief package designed to keep independent restaurants afloat and counter the massive economic losses of the pandemic. That bill offers grants based on what restaurants earned in 2019, which can be used to cover payroll, rent, utilities, maintenance, supply costs and other general expenses of running a restaurant.
“By putting this money to work as a grant, it will enable restaurants to continue paying rent, paying mortgages, paying some employees, paying to keep some of the supply chain intact, so that a year from now we’ll be returning to normal,” Blumenauer said on the call.
This push for the Restaurants Act comes at a pivotal time for the industry, as cold weather through much of the country is turning customers away from outdoor dining. Ross said Congress needs to pass legislation tailored for restaurants.
“We really need (help) at the federal level,” Ross said. “We need to see something specifically focused on this industry, to help them get through, to help them help employees who have lost jobs through no fault of their own. And to help them keep our communities growing and thriving.”
Congress faces a Friday deadline to pass a year-end government spending package as well as calls from both parties for more COVID relief. The Restaurants Act has more than 200 co-sponsors in the House, including all three Democrats from North Carolina, and Republican Sen. Roger Wicker has sponsored the same bill in the Senate. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, is one of 50 co-sponsors.
Blumenauer’s bill was passed as part of the House-backed HEROES Act, but that bill has gone nowhere in the Senate. He hopes to get the bill included in the year-end package, which is often loaded with items.
“If people will pay attention and listen to them (restaurant owners), we ought to be able to do it. And as I mentioned, it’s not that expensive. It will pay $2 for every dollar that it costs, saving unemployment, having them pay taxes rather than go bankrupt, paying rent and mortgages rather than being evicted or foreclosed on,” Blumenhauer said. “I think the case is compelling, and we’re still in the hunt.”
In North Carolina, March 17 marked the first milestone for the pandemic, when Gov. Roy Cooper ordered restaurants and bars to close their dining rooms. As the state reopened in phases, restaurants were allowed to open dining rooms at half-capacity in late May, but bars were only recently reopened in October for 30% outdoor capacity.
As the state’s COVID cases spiked in the past month, North Carolina tightened restrictions, moving its alcohol curfew up to 9 p.m. and closing dining rooms at 10 p.m.
Katie Button, the acclaimed Asheville chef of Curate, said there’s little relief to counter the burden of restrictions on the industry.
“You just cannot make up for the loss in what your business model was created to be, which was to serve diners in large capacity in tight spaces,” Button said. “We understand the public health piece of this and why it’s so important. ... What we don’t understand is the fact that the specific aid for restaurants to go along with these restrictions has not happened yet.”
‘Letting us fail is not an option’
During the pandemic, Button closed her bagel shop Button’s Bagels and turned the space into a specialty market of Spanish foods. Now that business ships gourmet items all over the country, but still can’t make up the losses of serving diners in a restaurant. Button said her company is down 55% from last year.
“We’re problem solvers; we are pivoting in every single way, shape and form imaginable to deal with the situation that we find ourselves in,” Button said. “Independently we are small but collectively we are huge: 500,000 independent restaurants, 11 million people. ... Letting us fail is not an option.”
For the first time, Raleigh dessert and cocktail bar Bittersweet has a Christmas tree in its dining room, a big one. The downtown bar still hasn’t opened its dining room, choosing the path of outdoor dining and takeout as COVID cases remained high.
Bittersweet owner Kim Hammer said cutting out the hospitality side of the restaurant industry also cut out much of the joy. This year she tried to add some back in with Christmas decorations.
“I wanted to make it look like a Hallmark Christmas movie all in here,” Hammer said. “We have a lot more sprinkles on the menu than normal. I’m just trying to find the happy and the joy where we can.”
In an ideal relief package, Hammer said PPP funds should be expanded for use on outdoor seating, which many restaurants built as a safer option to tight indoor spaces. She said that restaurants have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s restrictions, but that little help is offered to workers.
“It’s ironic that restaurants and bars are responsible for public safety and public health, but we’re never given any financial support to keep our workers safe,” Hammer said.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 7:27 PM with the headline "NC restaurant owners make their case to Congress: We need COVID relief to survive."
