As the pandemic drags on, California restaurants tell Congress they need help to stay open
Restaurant reservations remain far below pre-Covid-19 levels. Jobs at food establishments are coming back slowly, if at all. And the money Congress set aside to help them wasn’t nearly enough.
Thousands of restaurant owners from around the country pleaded for help Thursday, with the Independent Restaurant Coalition saying they may have to close.
The independent restaurants began a new push to get Washington to send financial relief. The group got $28.6 billion for the effort earlier this year and have strong congressional support to replenish the fund, but action has been slow to come.
The biggest worry: Restaurants all over Sacramento, California and the nation will soon face cutbacks and closings.
“Time is up for our nation’s 500,000 local, independent restaurants and bars, as well as the 16 million people we employ and the millions of farmers, fishermen, beverage distributors, and others up and down the supply chain,” the IRC said in a letter Thursday.
The letter was endorsed by more than 3,000 restaurants, including four-and-a-half pages of California restaurants. Several restaurants from the Sacramento area signed the letter, including ice cream maker Devil May Care and the upscale Zinfandel Grill on Fair Oaks Boulevard.
Sacramento restaurants faced a roller-coaster of closings, openings and capacity limits amid the coronavirus pandemic. During the worst of the pandemic, restaurants were only allowed to do takeout and delivery orders. When in-person dining was allowed, it was often limited to 25 percent or 50 percent of a restaurant’s indoor capacity.
Breweries were also impacted by the rules. In the Sacramento area, Elk Grove’s Flatland and Folsom’s Red Bus added wood-fired stoves to make pizzas for customers, skirting a state rule that limited brewery openings to those that have kitchens serving food to drinkers. Several California breweries co-signed the Independent Restaurant Coalition letter but none were from the Sacramento area.
Nationally, the letter said, “over 86% of independent restaurants and bars like ours who didn’t receive grants risk closing permanently without relief.
The restaurateurs urged more federal help for the restaurants, legislation endorsed by bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate.
Fewer customers, less credit
Restaurant reservations remain down from pre-pandemic levels all over the country.
In California, Open Table found reservations dropped 14% Wednesday compared to the same day in 2019, before the pandemic. Tuesday’s drop was 21%.
Nationwide, nearly one of five restaurant owners said their credit scores were now below 570, hurting their ability to borrow money.
Employment was 11.55 million last month, up slightly from October but still 736,000 below February 2020, the month before the pandemic triggered an economic recession.
Help from Congress?
Congress earlier this year created a $28.6 billion fund to help the restaurants. But it was far from enough help, and got entangled in legal controversy.
California had 36,379 eligible applicants for the fund; 15,988 applicants, or 43.9%, received funding.
The program nationwide got about 278,000 applicants seeking a total of $72.2 billion. About 101,000 restaurants got money, and the average grant was $283,000.
The fund originally was designed to be on particular aid to businesses owned by women, veterans, people who were “socially and economically disadvantaged,” and represented “multiple underserved communities.”
That triggered legal challenges. Because of a court ruling, the Small Business Administration told thousands of small businesses that were approved for funds they could no longer receive money.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 12:54 PM.
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