Jewish-owned food businesses hit hard by new restrictions

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Jewish-owned food businesses hit hard by new restrictions

ALIX WALL | CORRESPONDENT

In early March, Grossman’s Noshery & Peter Levitt, said it was a heartbreaking Bar started a new Instagram account. decision. “We’re trying to do the right thing Among the tantalizing photos: Fox’s U-Bet for our hourly and key employees who Chocolate Syrup, the staple ingredient in face severe hurdles feeding and housing egg creams. Ba-Tampte deli mustard. The themselves and their families,” she said. interior of a cinnamon babka. A short video Business was down 40 percent even before of raw bagels being coated in “everything” this week’s order, and painful layoffs had to seeds. happen, she said.

The couple behind the new Santa Rosa Jewish deli, over a year in the making, were building anticipation and targeting March 20 as the opening date. Then came the coronavirus.

On March 15, Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a shutdown of nonessential businesses in the state, such as bars and wineries. On March 16, Bay Area residents in most counties were told to begin “sheltering in place,” starting at midnight, through April 7. Only essential businesses such as supermarkets and pharmacies would remain open; restaurants were to serve only takeout or delivery.

Restaurants everywhere are grappling with how to survive — and take Terri and Mark Stark were looking forward to opening their Jewish deli in the North Bay. care of their employees — in this sudden new reality. While the Over the years, many people have come CDC has said the virus is not transmitted to Saul’s on the second night of Passover through food, it can live on shared surfaces and held their own seders, but that fun like doorknobs and tables and be trans- tradition won’t be happening this year. mitted through touch and through group “Our role in Berkeley is nourishing interaction. people with food and space to talk and

“We’re taking it one hour at a time,” said hang out with each other, but that’s not Grossman’s owner Terri Stark, who owns what we can do right now,” said Adelman, several other restaurants in Santa Rosa who noted that the Bay Area’s restaurant and Healdsburg with her husband, Mark. scene — and the entire industry — will not She said in the meantime, they are plan- look the same after this is over. ning to do takeout and delivery. AL’s Deli, which opened in San Fran-

The last time J. spoke to Stark was six cisco eight months ago and offered a months after she and her husband had lost combination of Israeli street food and their first restaurant, Willi’s Wine Bar, in Jewish deli, was the first restaurant with the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Jewish ties to succumb to the pandemic,

“It’s hard to believe,” she said this week. as much of its business came from tech “In the last three years, we’ve had one thing companies (story, page 35). after another, and they’ve been hugely The owners of Solomon’s had already impactful for the restaurant business.” reduced their hours, but after the gover-

Saul’s Deli in Berkeley and Solomon’s nor’s press conference, they decided to shut Delicatessen in Sacramento already down operations altogether. Solomon’s has decided to shutter their dining rooms, and been open less than a year. Che Fico, the Italian restaurant in San Partner Jami Goldstene said she has Francisco with a Jewish section on the been looking into loans to help take care of menu, has closed preemptively as well. Solomon’s employees.

Karen Adelman, who owns Saul’s with continued on page 39