It struck at different times for different people, but it was surreal and scary for everyone all the same. New Yorkers share when they realized the city that never sleeps - laid down to rest.
If You Think Keeping A Restaurant Open During A Pandemic Is Expensive, Just Try Closing One
arrow Inside Counter restaurant in Times square, which closed when indoor dining closed, in December 2020 Mark Lennihan/AP/Shutterstock
Blair Papagni closed her first restaurant, Jimmy’s Diner in Williamsburg Brooklyn, last July, making the 22-seat pub-style eatery one of hundreds of New York City dining spots that fell victim to the crippling forces of the pandemic forced shutdowns, bans on indoor gathering, and high rent costs.
“The most heartbreaking part about closing was having to lay off people that had worked for us for a decade and having to tell our three kids that we would no longer have the diner open anymore,” she told Gothamist.
The money and goodwill extended to restaurants early in the pandemic are drying up.
Independent restaurant owners say that lifelines extended by landlords, banks and vendors when the pandemic first hit the U.S. are ending, while federal loans made as part of pandemic-related stimulus programs are long gone.
The bleak financial picture means that many more restaurants could close in the coming months, adding to the tens of thousands of restaurants that have already shut during the pandemic.
The timing couldn’t be worse. More states and localities have ordered restaurants to close their dining rooms again to curb the virus’s spread, with New York City among the latest to suspend indoor service earlier this month. Outdoor patios that helped carry restaurants through warmer months aren’t popular in much of the U.S. now, and landlords and suppliers who extended help earlier in the pandemic face challenges of their own after months of customers falling behind.