To prepare for St. Patrick’s Day, Alan Andrian of Alan’s in Boscawen cooked 500 pounds of corn beef this year, as he has for more than 35 years of business in town.
Usually on St. Patrick’s Day, Alan’s serves 800 meals of corned beef and cabbage to patrons who come to the restaurant to eat, drink and celebrate. Yesterday, he only sold 110 meals, all to take out customers. Not a drink was poured from the bar.
“We lost thousands of dollars yesterday without being open,” Andrian said.
As for all the corned beef, Andrian said he’s got hundreds of pounds left in the freezer.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do with it yet,” he said Wednesday.
Following Gov. Chris Sununu’s announcement Monday that all restaurants and bars must shift operations to take-out, delivery or drive-through services only until at least April 7 to prevent spread of COVID-19, Andrian and other restaurants owners say they’re already struggling to get by.
There have been thousands of lay-offs across the state in the service industry, and a lot of unknowns about when and if people will be able to return to work.
Tuesday morning, Sununu directed the state’s unemployment insurance fund to be opened up to provide relief for a broad category of people affected by the growing list of restrictions as a result of the coronavirus, including those in the service industry currently out of work. Laid-off employees said they were starting to apply for the benefits online, but that the state website had been slow because of over-use.
Andrian said he’s had to cut down his staff from eight or 10 workers a day down to three, including himself. He said he’s been trying to rotate his scheduling so that all of the employees can work at least once a week.
“I don’t know how long that can last,” he said. Before Sununu’s announcement, only five percent of the restaurant’s revenue came from take-out.
At O’s Steak and Seafood in Concord, Manager Michael Marshand said 30 servers had to be let go this week, who were among the 220 employees to lose their jobs with Magic Foods Restaurant Group, which owns six restaurants in the state.
O’s Concord and Laconia locations, as well as Canoe Restaurant and Tavern are staying open, but doing take-out only. Chairs were stacked on tables at O’s in Concord on Wednesday and the doors were locked.
“It’s eerie. We’ve cut down to a skeleton crew,” said Chris Roscoe, chef at O’s, one of three employees in the building Wednesday. “Everything’s kind of by the hip right now.”
Roscoe said he’s heard businesses taking different approaches since Sununu’s order. Local downtown coffee shop White Mountain Coffee announced they would not be open while restrictions were in place. Concord Craft Brewery on Storrs Street in Concord is taking a different approach. It announced Tuesday it would start delivering beer to customers’ homes in Concord and team up with downtown restaurants to create meal and drink deliveries.
Many restaurants, like Andrian’s, have chosen to start offering delivery options in recent days as a way to bring in revenue. Roscoe said it’s not something they’ve started at O’s yet.
“Everyone’s doing something different. It sounds like a lot of these establishments are just shutting down in general,” he said. “I guess the idea is, ‘Cut your losses.’ I don’t know what the best approach is, to be honest. We’re sticking it out.”
He said the restaurant has been trying to highlight family-style meals on their menu on social media to attract customers. They sold corn beef for $12 a plate on Tuesday, $40 for a four-person family.
The restaurant, however, has not seen too many customers, he said.
With all of their leftover food, Roscoe said they are planning on preparing free meals for their employees.
“Our employees are our main priority now,” he said. “We want to take care of them – especially those that aren’t working.”
Although the restrictions have been tough on business everywhere, some restaurants are adapting better than others.
Assistant manager at Dos Amigos Burritos in downtown Concord, Max Broadbent, said Dos already gets a lot of take-out orders under normal circumstances. A group of eight people stood in the restaurant around noon-time waiting to pick up food. Tables had been moved out of the space and the restaurant’s second dining room and bar area roped off.
“We haven’t seen numbers like this since we’ve renovated – it’s been slow,” Broadbent said. “But I think compared to other restaurants, we’re still doing really, really well.”
Broadbent said one frustration has been that people aren’t taking the ban seriously in some cases.
“People have been still been trying to eat here, and we have to tell them, ‘That’s not safe,’ ” he said. “We’re trying to be as safe as we possibly can. We’re finding that people are making it really hard. It’s the second day, so we’re still figuring out what works, what doesn’t work.”
Dos was also offering delivery to local households. Broadbent said the kitchen staff, which has been cut in half, has been rotating delivering orders.
May Chiang, owner of the Chinese restaurant Tea Garden said usually 20 percent of her business take-out. However, she said she’s seen business wane in recent weeks as the virus has spread around the world.
“They say the disease is from China, and that the Chinese have the disease or something. They don’t want Chinese food. I’ve heard people say, ‘Don’t go to a Chinese place,’ ” Chiang said. “I’m from Taiwan and I’ve been here 30 years. I haven’t been to China. I think people need to get more knowledge about what’s going on.”
By the early afternoon on Wednesday, she had seen five take-out orders.
Some praised Sununu’s decision to limit crowds at bars or restaurants for the greater good.
Andrian said he felt closing down some businesses to the public but not others was unfair.
“First of all, if you’re going to do this type of shut down, you should not only shut down restaurants, but places like supermarkets too. If someone goes into Market Basket, and they are waiting for a food delivery in a line, those people are a lot closer together then when they’re eating dimmer at my restaurant,” he said. “I just feel like, ‘If they re going to do it – do it for everybody.”
“I’m all for getting rid of this,” he added, of COVID-19. “If I have to take it on the chin to help the world and the country, that’s okay, but let’s make it fair.”