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'We need to be open' | Restaurant campaign pushes for return of indoor dining in lieu of handouts

The California Restaurant Association said 67% of restaurants in their survey said they were at risk of eviction.
Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto/ vicnt
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CALIFORNIA, USA — A restaurant dine-in experience has become one of the rarer sights in the state. After nearly six months, a new campaign is chronicling the plight of restaurants and restaurant workers as they make a push to go back indoors.

“We want to get back to what we do,” said Jot Condie, CEO of the California Restaurant Association (CRA). “This isn’t… asking for a handout.”

In the past week, Condie and the CRA started a new advocacy effort called Stand Up for Restaurants. The effort helps put a face and voice to the constant devastation and worry that the CRA has been seeing and shares it with the public and elected leadership.

“Our goal is to eventually put together a campaign just for the public to heighten the awareness, not in a very slick ad that you see some of these credit card companies airing nationally. We want to give voice to our workers, our suppliers who are hurting… that no one sees,” Condie said, referencing some of the artisan bakers and farmers who rely on restaurants as customers.

The campaign is seeking testimonials from people about why the restaurant industry is important to them. Each testimonial is meant to be personal in what Condie described as an organic and “lo-fi” way.

California plays host to 1,830,000 restaurant and food service jobs, according to the National Restaurant Association. Condie said servers were one of the largest portions of their workforce impacted by layoffs and furloughs due to the loss of indoor dining areas.

A September Yelp economic report said 163,735 US businesses on Yelp have closed between March 1 to August 31. The report said permanent and temporary closures continue to rise across the country with 60% of closed businesses not reopening. Restaurants are among the most impacted areas with 32,109 closures.

According to Yelp data, California leads by far in business closures. In California, 19,200 businesses are permanently closed and 19,900 are temporarily closed.

A CRA survey also found that 67% of restaurants were at risk of being evicted by their landlord and that 77% of restaurants in California will run out of PPP funds at the end of September, Condie said. In August, the CRA said 30% of restaurants will either close their restaurant permanently or will downsize by closing locations.

“Essentially, we just want to get back to business,” Condie said. “Workers just want to get back to work. Many people in communities want to be able to enjoy eating out in a restaurant and being out in a safe way.”

Condie added that cleanliness and sanitation were in the DNA of the restaurant industry. Referencing the return of safe indoor dining in other states, he believes restaurants can open safely with conditions for indoor dining.

“Restaurants want to be open - that’s the bottom line,” he said. “We need to be open.”

While he said the industry isn’t looking for a handout, he did acknowledge that the federal dollars have been critical to keeping restaurants alive and that the community messages could find their way to elected officials.

“The government has shut us down for righteous reasons. They’re trying to contain this virus,” Condie said. “This is not an issue about ‘you can’t shut us down’, but if you do shut us down, you need to provide some assistance if you want us to be around when the dust settles.”

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