KCRag Forum

Nick and Jack's on Main Street.

mgsports wrote: ↑Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:06 am Nick and Jack's on Main Street.

That location has been a sort of black hole for anything going in there.

I wouldn't fault the location. There have been many other factors that have led to failures there. It is a very large space, though, which likely adds to the challenge.

I know there will be many, but does anyone have rumors of restaurants that are considering closing? It’d be great to flood them with a ton of business instead of just seeing them gone when this is all over. I know we’re all buying takeout but prebuying at our favorite places that are in trouble ($500 gift cards?) could help places weather the storm.

Even if hypothetically lockdown is lifted tomorrow and everyone could go back to work, many might be wary about eating out at restaurants and consumer confidence will likely be lower, so a good chunk of restaurants already barely getting by may not make it even with CARES Act help. The longer this lingers the more difficult some may have staying alive.

beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:51 pm I know there will be many, but does anyone have rumors of restaurants that are considering closing? It’d be great to flood them with a ton of business instead of just seeing them gone when this is all over. I know we’re all buying takeout but prebuying at our favorite places that are in trouble ($500 gift cards?) could help places weather the storm.

I bought one for The Ship since they closed up for the pandemic.

Got a nice handwritten note back from the proprietor.

Lucky Brewgrille also closed.

Beignet is closing after 7 years at City Market.

^Sad if the case as their beignets are as good as I've had in Norleans. In fact many places in FQ are dry.

More reasons we need to cautiously get economy going ASAP. Reports of millions of gallons of milk dumped because schools closed and overall lower demand. Warehouses of corn being dumped because entire demand chain down dramatically. Small farmers not making it because farm-to-table restaurants closed, more and more permanently as each day goes by. The snowball effect will get worse as each week goes by. CARES Act isn't the solution, it's a bandaid that is hard to apply for many small biz. The solution is to get the economy going again as safely as possible (like requiring masks in workplace/publicly) and accepting risks.

How can restaurants recover though? If say we get back to normal mid june, most people will be too scared to go out to eat, social distancing will most likely still be recommended

Yeah there's no good scenario and many will be scared to eat out but if lockdown is safely lifted and if half are willing to eat out will help restaurants survive. And each week that goes by the harder it will be for them to survive. Until there's a vaccine, which can take over a year, we'll need to figure out safe ways to get people out while managing spread.

I'm chomping at the bit to get out to a restaurant, I can't imagine the whole world is going to be scared to go out to eat based on how poorly stay at home orders are being reported now.

Mitigations like spacing out tables could do a lot. There is a lot that is going to change about this situation in the short term, being able to test and trace quickly for example.

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:03 am I'm chopping at the bit to get out to a restaurant, I can't imagine the whole world is going to be scared to go out to eat based on how poorly stay at home orders are being reported now.

Mitigations like spacing out tables could do a lot. There is a lot that is going to change about this situation in the short term, being able to test and trace quickly for example.

The problem is that restaurants will not be able/allowed to operate at full capacity, making them less sustainable than they were pre-pandemic. It's going to be very difficult for any restaurant to survive this crisis. Most don't have the reserves to hold out until things return to anything close to normal. We will be seeing tons of them close a couple months after things open back up and commercial rents will start dropping. Just a few months ago, it was nearly impossible for a restaurant to find a place that already had a kitchen. We may never return to those days.

I disagree that it is that dire. No restaurants will survive this?

It seems like the savvy landlords would renegotiate the rent rather than evict a good tenant and then search for a new one to pay the lesser amount of rent that the market commands. (I have no idea how savvy they actually are.)

kas1 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 11:13 am It seems like the savvy landlords would renegotiate the rent rather than evict a good tenant and then search for a new one to pay the lesser amount of rent that the market commands. (I have no idea how savvy they actually are.)

correct in that pursuit/cost of acquisition is far greater than cost of retention....in any industry. But for landlords (sic merchant partners) they typically have to subsidize initial finishes, taking a risk on success - especially if mom/pop - then recover those TI funds over the first few years IF successful. So yes, try to curate well, mitigate risks and help thru ongoing issues like we have today. This shall pass and the fed/locals offer PPP payroll recovery, including a % of rent, utilities, etc. So the savvy ones are the merchants who must juggle the recovery funds, spoilage, re-tolling as much as possible to grab n' go, offer other items like grocery, etc - be the bodega of old for near-to-me offerings.

Definitely been using the few bodega like setups we have during this

brewcrew1000 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 12, 2020 6:23 pm Beignet is closing after 7 years at City Market.

This is why I wish some local restaurant executive with a pulse on local restaurant runnings (Joyce) could warn us of potential closings. We could have all hit up Beignet and given some much needed CPR to keep it going in the short term. I know all restaurants are hurting, but don’t let the first announcement of a potential closing be the actual announcement.

The company that owns Bravo might go Bankrupted.

beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:22 pm

brewcrew1000 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 12, 2020 6:23 pm Beignet is closing after 7 years at City Market.

This is why I wish some local restaurant executive with a pulse on local restaurant runnings (Joyce) could warn us of potential closings. We could have all hit up Beignet and given some much needed CPR to keep it going in the short term. I know all restaurants are hurting, but don’t let the first announcement of a potential closing be the actual announcement.

i had a similar initial reaction. in practice though what's keeping every single restaurant from leaking that they've got problems? even if only a quarter of them did, you're right back at square one because the emergency support is too diluted across the reduced demand to make a meaningful impact.