FOOD YOUNG & HUNGRY
On the Line Five months into the public health emergency, some local bars and restaurants are tentatively surviving the pandemic. Others are opting to close their doors for good. T h e I n de p e n de n t R e s tau r a n t Coalition hired actor Morgan Freeman to narrate a haunting call for help released earlier this month. “The COVID-19 crisis threatens to permanently close 85 percent of independent restaurants,” Freeman says in the ad that urges Congress to pass legislation including $120 billion in aid specifically for the hospitality industry. When Mayor Muriel Bowser closed restaurants and bars for on-premises consumption on March 16, some restaurant operators speculated that the pandemic would only stretch into late spring. Tyoka Jackson, the owner of an IHOP franchise in Congress Heights, told City Paper on April 2 that he wouldn’t be able to survive four more weeks operating on takeout alone. “I don’t like to predict our own demise, but I’m scared to be doing this beyond one month from now,” he said at the time. It’s now been 19 weeks since Jackson made his dire prediction and five months since the pandemic first necessitated a shutdown. While D.C. restaurants have since been able to open their patios in Phase One of reopening and seat a limited number of people in their dining rooms in Phase Two, the city could roll back these permissions at any moment. Leaders in other cities and states, including California and parts of Michigan, have reclosed restaurants as the virus continues to spread, acknowledging that indoor dining is risky. Many of the District’s small and independent restaurants that are currently open for business are staffed solely by an owner or a handful of staff to cut down on labor costs and free up money for mounting rent and utility bills. “This is like The Hunger Games, restaurant edition,” says Coconut Club chef and partner Adam Greenberg. “Everyone gets two people to operate.” According to the U.S. Labor Department’s July jobs report, 21.8 percent of hospitality industry workers remain unemployed. There couldn’t be a worse time to be without work—the $600
Darrow Montgomery
By Laura Hayes @LauraHayesDC
per week Pandemic Unemployment Insurance payments ceased in late July, and Congress is deadlocked over reinstating the benefit at the same or a lesser amount. President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on Aug. 8 promising an additional $400 per week in unemployment benefits, but the order will be difficult to implement because the money is tied up in the Department of Homeland Security’s Disaster Relief Fund. Trump’s memo also asks states and other jurisdictions, which are strapped for cash, to contribute 25 percent of the $400. There also isn’t any promising aid on the way for restaurant owners. The Paycheck Protection Program wasn’t created with a lengthy pandemic in mind. The forgivable loan application window expired on Aug. 8, and any plans for an extension are also tied up
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in the stalled stimulus talks. Locally, the D.C. Council dedicated a fresh $100 million to microgrants targeting restaurants, hotels, and retailers, but the funding to bring the grants to fruition isn’t available yet. As conditions grow increasingly challenging, City Paper took the pulse of four bar and restaurant owners in the District. One didn’t make it. Another has yet to reopen. And two more are doing whatever it takes to survive, despite not knowing how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last. Coppi’s Organic 3321 Connecticut Ave. NW Coppi’s Organic’s history in D.C. dates back to 1993, when the restaurant first opened on U Street NW. In the early 2000s, the original
owners sold the restaurant to Salvadoran siblings Carlos and Nori Amaya. Then tragedy struck. Nori was murdered in her apartment in 2009; the case remains unsolved and continues to torment Carlos. In 2012, the building housing Coppi’s was slated for redevelopment, forcing Carlos to find a new home for his restaurant. He signed a lease in Cleveland Park and reopened in late 2014 with the help of another sister, Liz Pacheco. According to Carlos, business was steady until the transition from the Obama administration to the Trump administration in 2016. “There was a noticeable difference in sales,” he says. “They dropped dramatically, so we started having conversations with our landlord about rent relief.” Other Cleveland Park restaurants struggled as well, with Ripple and NamViet closing in 2017.
