Nearly one-fifth of Bay State restaurants have permanently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, and others wonder whether they will survive the fall and winter.
Out of approximately 16,000 statewide, 3,400 have closed their doors for good, said Bob Luz, the association’s president and CEO. The rest now offer customers curbside delivery, indoor dining or dining alfresco.
“Not surprisingly, outdoor seating has become very popular” among customers concerned with contracting the virus, Luz said.
But even restaurants that have the space to offer outdoor dining worry about what the future holds for them once the weather grows cold.
Owners are preparing for the fall by buying outdoor heaters and tents, he said. But the state is allowing outdoor dining only until the end of November.
“Some guests will not choose to come inside,” he said. “Takeout will become even more popular.”
Boston has been particularly hard hit, Luz said, because many people in the suburbs continue to work from home and are not coming into the city.
“It’s a very challenging time and a very precarious future for restaurants across the city, state and country,” Luz said. “We are in the unusual position of having to beg the state and federal government for help, whereas restaurants are usually the most philanthropic industry out there.”
Donato Frattaroli’s North End eatery, Il Molo, has remained closed indefinitely since earlier this year because the state has not yet allowed bars to reopen, and Il Molo’s bar made up about 20% of the restaurant’s capacity. Frattaroli had to lay off his staff, although he was able to give some the option of working at his other restaurant, Victory Point in Quincy.
There, roughly 40% of business relied on the bar, so Frattaroli had to get creative, installing high-top tables around the bar and making use of his outdoor seating. But with social distancing, he has to use fewer tables.
So within the last three weeks, he’s opened a take-out pizza shop and an ice cream store at Victory Point to help pay his bills, and keep his staff of 60 employed and, hopefully, see him through the fall and winter, he said.
Tony Maws said Craigie Burger, the Fenway restaurant he was a partner in, closed in March, and his other restaurant, Craigie on Main in Cambridge, has been selling food to go. Two weeks ago, he opened Craigie Next Door, an outdoor eatery in a former parking lot.
“We’re operating at 30 percent of our normal volume,” said Maws, co-founder of Massachusetts Restaurants United. “Fall’s around the corner, outdoor dining will disappear, our PPP (Paycheck Protection Program loan) will run out, and independent restaurants will die.”
Ultimately, he said, that will be a loss not only for owners like him and the employees they will have to lay off, but for everyone.
“Independent restaurants are the flavor and personality of your main streets,” Maws said. “We support many other businesses, including farmers and purveyors. It’s in everybody’s interest to have independent restaurants survive.”
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Nearly one in five Massachusetts restaurants have permanently closed - Boston Herald
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