Restaurant and bar industry leaders demanded action from the administration hours after President Joe Biden’s inaugural State of the Union speech on Tuesday night.
Chefs, restaurant owners, and leaders of the Independent Restaurant Coalition addressed the media on Wednesday, in tandem with a new letter signed by over 100,000 restaurant employees urging the president and Congress to increase funding for the bipartisan Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
“I didn’t care if we were in a speech; what matters is that the program is refilled and that his actions reflect his values.” “I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t addressed that our need is so dire.
Restaurant and bar industry leaders demanded action from the administration hours after President Joe Biden’s inaugural State of the Union speech on Tuesday night.
Chefs, restaurant owners, and leaders of the Independent Restaurant Coalition addressed the media on Wednesday, in tandem with a new letter signed by over 100,000 restaurant employees urging the president and Congress to increase funding for the bipartisan Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
“I didn’t care if we were in a speech; what matters is that the program is refilled and that his actions reflect his values.” “I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t addressed that our need is so dire.
“The state of the union is not strong when neighborhood restaurants and bars are preparing to close permanently,” said Erika Polmar, executive director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition.
After nearly a year, the RRF has failed to support roughly two-thirds of eligible businesses that applied for the program, leaving out nearly 200,000 independent bars and restaurants, with four out of every five of those businesses in danger of permanently closing, threatening the nearly 11 million employees it supports.
IRC co-founder Tom Colicchio thanked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and others who came together in Washington, D.C., to include $28.6 billion for the industry as part of the American Rescue Plan, but said it’s not even close enough.
Colicchio’s New York City restaurants, like many others, have been at the epicenter of multiple COVID-19 surges, resulting in tighter restrictions, closures, and smaller crowds, which has directly impacted business.
As the pandemic enters its third year, it has become “impossible for most restaurants to withstand the compounding debt, rising costs, revenue-decimating local restrictions, and COVID-19 surges without dedicated help from Congress,” according to Nayfeld.
“Replenishing RRF is the only way for independent restaurants and bars to recover from the two years of economic trauma we’ve endured and the aftershock we’ll continue to feel,” he said. “To take that little bit of money to reopen a business, buy back inventory, get some momentum for six to seven weeks, then shut down again, that loss of momentum is so detrimental to the business — Omicron was something for a lot of restaurants that was the arrow through our bodies that was going to make us limp along and die from later.”
On Tuesday night, President Biden addressed the economy and inflation, but Colicchio said that while these issues are troubling for the restaurant industry, they are not the primary source of pain for the tens of thousands of independent owners and operators seeking relief from the last two years.
We are not requesting anything in addition to our original position; we are simply requesting that the government complete their work.
According to the IRC, at least 90,000 restaurants and bars have closed since the outbreak began. The leisure and hospitality unemployment rate remains at 8.2 percent, nearly double the overall rate, as restaurant and bar employment remains 984,700 below pre-pandemic levels.
According to Polmar, as detailed in a January IRC report, “Neighborhood restaurants and bars are further in debt and have exhausted all options. Our industry is organizing for the second time in five weeks because the only hope we have is that our elected officials will listen to our pleas and ensure that every single restaurant and bar receives the assistance they require to survive the pandemic.”
