Among the latest mandates to limit the spread of COVID-19, bars and restaurants have stopped most of their operations. Our Eran Hami spoke with one of those owners impacted by this. The owner he spoke with made a good point we may not have thought about. This shutdown, of course, affects restaurant staff but goes beyond that.
With growing concerns about the spread of COVID-19, Governor DeWine decided to order the closing of all bars and restaurants.
John Heaphy, the owner of Good Food Restaurants, is shocked by the news. Of course business will hurt in places and health is a priority, but Heaphy made the tough decision to close Old City Prime and all staff was laid off on Monday.
"All of those folks who I work with weekly, had to be told the news this morning and it's difficult," said John Heaphy, owner of Good Food Restaurants. "It's tough times."
Those employees have been directed to file for unemployment with the state's resources. As for all of the Beer Barrel restaurants and Happy Daz, they will continue with drive-thru and carryout orders. The staff may not be as busy but Heaphy says neither are his distributors.
"This is an industry-wide situation and its an economy-wide situation because suppliers who supply us, other vendors who do print work for us, and other things that we need in this business, are all feeling this, its unchartered territory," explained Heaphy.
The scariest part for Heaphy is there is no time table.
"If we were told we're going to close for two weeks and we're going to open back the first of April, everybody can plan accordingly to that. But that wasn't the rule. It's until further notice. We don't know if further notice is seven days from now or two months from now. A lot of people who are on 7 days or 14 days or 30-day terms all of their vendor invoices are coming due this week, next week, the following week. And if there's no revenue coming in that does incredible damage to people's ability to keep their businesses open," said Heaphy.
In the meantime, Heaphy hopes people continue to eat out at their local restaurants through carryout and hopes they trust those restaurants when all this is resolved.
