Restaurants slowly come back, if they come back at all - Vermont Biz

Photo: Sweetwaters in downtown Burlington has set up 20 tables for outside dining. The tables adhere to social distance guidelines. There is also limited indoor dining. Courtesy photo.

by Bruce Edwards, Vermont Business Magazine The restaurant business has never been easy - long hours and tight margins. Enter COVID-19 and that scenario got progressively worse, literally overnight.

That’s when Governor Phil Scott took the painful step in mid-March of ordering all non-essential businesses to close.

For The Skinny Pancake founder Benjamin Adler, the first priority was to get his people signed up for unemployment insurance.

“We got everybody on quickly before most other people did so they didn’t have that cash flow gap,” said Adler, who operates Skinny Pancakes in Burlington, Montpelier and Quechee.  

Photo: The Skinny Pancake is open for business with outside dining and takeout. The restaurant operates several locations including Burlington, Montpelier and Quechee. Courtesy photo.

The state began lifting its state of emergency gradually allowing restaurants to reopen beyond takeout and delivery. The reopening started with outdoor dining and now has progressed to indoor dining but with restrictions.

Inside tables must be six feet apart and restaurants have capacity limits, which makes earning a profit challenging, if not impossible.

Beginning June 26, restaurants, catering, food service, and bars may allow 50 percent of fire safety occupancy or 1 person per 100 square feet, with a maximum of 75 people indoors and 150 people outdoors.

Standing is not allowed at this time. Bar seating and drink or food production areas must remain closed to dining. Operators must limit the total number of customers served/seated in outside seating at one time to 150 (or their maximum licensed seating capacity, whichever is less.)

The Skinny Pancake is open but only for outdoor dining, as of mid-June.

“We have not opened for indoor dining,” Adler said. “It doesn’t feel right. Too many people feel like it’s not safe.” 

For David Melincoff, who owns Sweetwaters in downtown Burlington, moving forward in the face of the crisis meant  taking a new approach.

“I think part of it is trying to reimagine yourself and question all the things you used to do,” Melincoff said.  

Sweetwaters shutdown completely in mid-March not even offering takeout.

But starting at the end of May Melincoff gave the takeout business a try and a few days later outdoor dining.

Indoor dining resumed in early June but not without restrictions.

“It’s not going to help much,” Melincoff said, referring to the 25 percent capacity limit. The good news is that with the nice weather of late most people prefer to dine outside at one of the 20 tables, he said.

More important than the occupancy limit, he said, is the social distancing between tables.

“The six-foot distancing will limit you a lot more than the occupancy will,” he said.

Occupying the former Burlington Trust building, the interior configuration limits the number of tables that have to be set apart to 18, Melincoff said. “So it really doesn’t matter whether it’s 50 percent occupancy or 75 or 100, I’m never going to get past 18 tables,” he said.

Normal occupancy is between 180 and 190 customers. With 18 tables and a maximum of four people at each table, the maximum indoor capacity is 72.

Jamie Rozzi of Rozzi’s Lakeshore Tavern and Restaurant in Colchester said his business was turned upside down in one day when the state issued its emergency order to shutdown.

“When that happened we went to 100 percent takeout, which was quite an adjustment,” Rozzi said.

The adjustment included transforming part of the pool room into a takeout operation, he said.

Rozzi said the biggest complaint he has is the lack of information from the state.

“The problem is you’re not getting a lot of input from the Vermont Health Department or no one is giving you any real guidance,” he said. “You have to find the guidance.”

Rozzi said he can only accommodate 20 people indoors and no bar stools. To add more space, he’s converting the pool room into a dining area.  

Profit margins are slim -.between 3 percent and 10 percent, he said.

“So when you’re at 25 percent (of capacity) you’re not going to make it,” he said.

Rozzi said the takeout business has countered some of the lost indoor dining business.  

Skinny Pancake is open for takeout and outdoor dining at its locations in downtown Burlington and on the waterfront. Other locations are Montpelier and Quechee. A new location was scheduled to open in Stowe but that’s been delayed because of the current situation.

The location at the Burlington airport is scheduled to open July 1, depending on passenger traffic. 

Adler closed his Hanover, N.H., location, which he said was marginal at best before COVID-19. He also said the future of the University of Vermont restaurant is up in the air. 

Prior to the onset of the pandemic, The Skinny Pancake company had 235 employees. Staffing now is less than 100.

To help the greater community through the crisis, The Skinny Pancake and its partners started ShiftMeals (shiftmeals.org), cooking meals for laid off restaurant workers, artists and others, Adler said.

He said the effort has resulted in 40,000 meals or 6,000 meals a week. “We focused on folks who don’t typically use the food banks, gig workers, food service industry and other people who were employed who were so abruptly unemployed,” Adler said.

ShiftMeals involves nearly 20 corporate partners and GoFundMe contributors.

Adler said the effort is likely to carry over beyond COVID as a way to “feed people in a crisis.” 

The economic fallout has been tough on small businesses and restaurants  in particular. 

Melincoff said he’s hopeful the state will share some of its federal financial assistance with the restaurant industry. 

Regardless, Melincoff said he’s in it for the long haul.

“I mean I look at it as a Marathon,” he said. 

Adler isn’t complaining either about the steps the Scott administration was forced to take.

“It’s crushing economically but lives before business all day long,” he said. “This is what we have to do.”

Welch Unveils $120 Billion Bipartisan Bill

On June 22, Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) held a press conference on Church Street in Burlington with local restaurant owners to unveil bipartisan legislation that he recently introduced in Congress to create a $120 billion grant program, specifically to help local restaurants survive during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

Welch has held numerous e-meetings with restaurant owners throughout Vermont since the start of the pandemic and he has heard a consistent message, “We need help.”

This legislation was introduced in direct response to those pleas for help, he said. This is only the beginning of the process to turn this proposal into law. It would need to pass through the various House committees in Congress before going to the Senate and before moving on to the president for his signature.

Photo: Congressman Peter Welch found a shady spot on a scorching hot June day on Church Street in Burlington to reveal the details of a new $120 billion plan to help rescue restaurants, which have been one of the hardest industries hit by the economic consequences of the pandemic. Courtesy photo.

During this unprecedented time, many restaurants have been forced to completely close, offer take-out only options, or open at significantly reduced capacity.

While all of these steps were necessary for the public health of Vermonters, they have devastated the local food industry and cost the jobs of thousands of Vermonters who worked in the industry.

Facing months of lost revenue from a decrease in customer traffic, restaurants are also coping with the rising cost of supplies and new expenses for personal protective equipment.

“Vermont’s restaurants are often the lifeblood of our communities, where we catch up and socialize with our loved ones and neighbors,” Welch said. “We need a strong food industry in Vermont, which supports local jobs and suppliers, farms, and our downtowns. The SBA loan programs do not fit all of the needs of the many restaurants hit hard by this pandemic, who have closed for months and are just now opening at greatly reduced capacity. This bill is a critical step to ensure our treasured local establishments are able to survive this pandemic to serve our friends and neighbors for many years.”

“The Vermont Restaurant Coalition is grateful to Representative Peter Welch for co-sponsoring the RESTAURANTS Act,” said Sue Bette, co-owner of Bluebird BBQ and co-founder of the Vermont Independent Restaurant Coalition. 

“This bill will not only save hundreds of restaurants in Vermont but will also serve to provide secure employment for our teams, preserve our local supply chain, and maintain vibrant downtowns. We would also like to acknowledge the diligent work of the Independent Restaurant Coalition which helped bring this legislation to fruition. Thank you Congressman Welch for your leadership and for recognizing the important role that restaurants will play in Vermont's economic and social recovery. With this step, you have helped save our restaurant industry so that it will once again thrive.”

Welch partnered with Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and eight other colleagues to introduce the RESTAURANTS Act (H.R. 7197) last week. 

The $120 billion grant program would:

• Be available to food service or drinking establishments, including caterers, that are not publicly traded or part of a chain with 20 or more locations doing business under the same name.
• Provide assistance to cover the difference between revenues from 2019 and projected revenues through 2020.
• Include an initial 14 day period when funds will only be made available to restaurants with $1.5 million or less in profit to guarantee that small local restaurants receive funds.
• Provide coverage for payroll (not including employee compensation exceeding $100,000 per year), benefits, mortgage and rent payments, utilities, maintenance, supplies (including personal protective equipment and cleaning materials), food, debt obligations to suppliers, and any other expenses deemed essential by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Bruce Edwards is a freelance writer from Southern Vermont.

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