“The Death Of A City”: NYC Restaurants Fear The Pandemic Will Wipe Them Out

Stefan Jonot wanted to open a place that was like the French bistros he grew up with in Paris. So, five years ago, he found a quiet corner on the Lower East Side and opened LES Enfants de Bohème with a few partners and his wife Cathy Lang Ho.

They describe it as a local joint where neighbors leave their apartment keys when they're away.

“Right now, because of the situation, we have a ton of keys,” said Jonot. “They ask us if we can water their plants, take the mail, because we’re a community place.”

The couple has lived and worked in the Lower East side for almost 20 years. LES Enfants de Bohème was Jonot’s second restaurant in New York. His first, Les Enfants Terribles, closed in 2012 after almost 10 years on Canal Street.

After the state ordered all non-essential businesses to close on March 16th, Jonot said he tried keeping the restaurant open for pick-up and deliveries. But that only lasted a couple days.

“It was not an option for the workers. Because we have workers they live in Brooklyn or in Queens or in Bronx [sic]. And you just don’t want them to take the risk to take public transportation,” said Jonot.

“It didn’t feel right,” Ho added.

So they shut the restaurant’s doors and laid off ten of their employees.

Restaurants account for about 40 percent of COVID-19 related layoffs, the most of any industry according to New York State Department of Labor data tallied by Gothamist/WNYC. Though the state data only account for businesses with at least 50 full-time employees, the numbers echo other reports of COVID-19’s impact on the restaurant industry.

An April 21 survey by the New York State Restaurant Association found four out of every five restaurant workers in the state had been laid off since the beginning of the outbreak—more than 527,000 people.

“It is catastrophic,” said Krishnendu Ray, chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University.

Ray said the city’s restaurants have never faced a crisis of this magnitude—especially smaller, immigrant owned ones. “They can’t go more than two weeks without sales,” he said.

For LES Enfants de Bohème the closure is meant to be temporary, but the bills are piling up. Jonot said they still have to pay about $15,000 a month—that includes rent, utilities, insurance and leases on equipment like dishwashers.

They’ve applied for several federal relief loans, including the Paycheck Protection Program [PPP], but it’s been almost three weeks and they haven’t heard back about their application.

“Nothing,” Ho said. “It feels like we're just dumping all of our things into a big black hole.”

Jonot added, “Every morning when you wake up the first thing you look it’s your email to see if you have news and you don't have news. And you start the day with this feeling: no news."

Jonot and Ho echo the frustrations of many of the city’s small businesses owners, who simply haven’t heard back from their banks meant to process their PPP applications.

And the loan’s stipulations could leave independently owned restaurants on the hook for thousands of dollars. In order for the PPP loan to be forgiven, at least 75% of it has to be used on payroll within eight weeks of having received the money.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has extended all non-essential business closures until at least May 15th. But restaurant owners fear it will be many more months before the state allows them to reopen.

“So what does that payroll go towards?” Ho said.

In the meantime, LES Enfants de Bohème has set up a GoFundMe relief fund to help with expenses.

In the first round of federal small business loans, several chain restaurants were able to get millions of dollars while smaller ones were left behind. The owners of Shake Shack recently announced they’d be returning their $10 million PPP loan, but millions still went to large chains like Potbelly and Ruth’s Hospitality.

Ray, the NYU professor, said fast food chains may be able to weather the crisis, but he predicted half of the city’s small restaurants might not make it in the next two years, which could have lasting effects on New York.

“It's kind of a death of a city,” Ray said. “What the pandemic is doing is destroying livelihoods and in the process, destroying the liveliness of a city.”

Congress has allocated $310 billion for a second round of PPP funding, but Ray said New York needs to push legislation focused on helping small owners pay commercial rent, which he said is “often the killer fixed cost for small businesses.”

A state bill calling for a 90-day rent suspension for residents and small businesses affected by the crisis was introduced last month, but hasn’t even been scheduled for a vote.

So owners like Emanuele Nigro of Osteria 57 have had to tell their landlords rent will have to wait.

“I have to pay the food, of course, and the people. And that's the first priority that we have,” Nigro said. “I stood my ground on that and I [told my landlord] we will be very happy to pay rent as well, as soon as it is possible for us to do it.”

Osteria 57, which opened in the West Village in 2017, has turned to takeout and delivery to survive. But even though the restaurant sometimes makes up to 100 meals a day, he’s still losing money. In part, Nigro said, because of the commissions charged by delivery apps like GrubHub, which can hover around 30% percent.

Still, Nigro said he’s taking it day by day. He’s part of WhatsApp group of more than 200 restaurateurs who trade advice and offer solace.

“Even to just know on a daily [basis] that there are other people that are suffering from the same situation and that are affected, makes you a little bit more hopeful,” he said. “You know, like, they can’t let us all fall.”

With data reporting by Megan Zerez.