FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
Column: For the Pied Piper of La Puente, no COVID-hit business is too small to tout [Los Angeles Times]
When the COVID-19 pandemic first shut down Southern California restaurants in March, Joe Bautista had an epiphany that all of us should have.
He was a local internet personality of some note who went by Man With an Appetite. On his social media accounts, the warehouse worker for a shipping company chronicled cooking and dining adventures almost indistinguishable from those of fellow foodies. Glamorous photos of grub. Selfies. A slew of hashtags.
Life as a movable feast, and little else.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first shut down Southern California restaurants in March, Joe Bautista had an epiphany that all of us should have.
He was a local internet personality of some note who went by Man With an Appetite. On his social media accounts, the warehouse worker for a shipping company chronicled cooking and dining adventures almost indistinguishable from those of fellow foodies. Glamorous photos of grub. Selfies. A slew of hashtags.
Life as a movable feast, and little else.
But the financial devastation to small businesses wrought by the pandemic took Bautista back to 2009. That year, he lost his job to the Great Recession