Beards on, PPP off, States open, Rivera opines, and more...

Family Meal - Tuesday, April 28th, 2020

Hello Tuesday,

Quick heads up that the Eater Digest podcast I called into Thursday night is now live, as is an audio version of that long NYT essay from Gabrielle Hamilton (on The Daily). And thanks to all the readers who wrote in with thoughts on Hamilton’s piece this weekend! Some asked if I wasn’t being a bit jaded in Friday’s newsletter. Many said they agreed there were concerns with both the content and its author. Everyone was probably right.

Let’s get to it…

Beard Season – Per Eater’s Monica Burton: “The restaurant industry hasn’t begun to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, but the James Beard Foundation is moving ahead with its annual awards: On May 4 (the original date for the annual JamesBeardAwards ceremony in Chicago) the Foundation will announce the 2020 James Beard Awards finalists during a live-streamed, virtual event… The announcement will cover nominees from all of the usual restaurant and chef categories, as well as nominees for the book and media awards. And plans for some kind of awards ceremony are also moving ahead. A spokesperson for the awards told Eater that ‘details regarding the date, format and location of the awards will be shared as soon as possible.’”

The Relief – And now, let’s take a quick look at how the NYT says that second round of PPP funding is going: “Minutes after a $310 billion aid program for small companies opened for business on Monday, the online portal for submitting applications crashed. And it kept crashing all day, much to the frustration of bankers around the country who were trying — and failing — to apply on behalf of desperate clients.”

Yes, “much to the frustration of the bankers,” and also, or so I hear, very tough on the desperate clients.

P.S. – This Washington Post editorial from yesterday is a useful summary of the issues if you need one: “The first lesson from this extraordinary experience is that, gargantuan as it was, the PPP, as it has come to be known, was and is probably too small. The second is that, generous as it was — the ‘loans’ are easily forgiven and tantamount to grants — the PPP was probably too restrictive. It imposed due diligence requirements for banks, causing lenders to favor existing customers over new applicants. PPP’s expectation to spend at least 75 percent of funds received on payroll, and the rest on rent and utilities, represented an arbitrary barrier for some otherwise-worthy companies. While 74 percent of PPP loans through April 16 were $150,000 or less (a total of $58.3 billion), a mere 4,412 loans of $5 million-plus accounted for $31 billion of disbursements. As Aaron Klein of the Brookings Institution has noted, this top-heavy distribution reflected incentives in the program’s administrative compensation for banks.”

And, of course, there’s this: “If PPP has a fundamental flaw, it might be the premise that the worst economic damage will be over by the end of the second quarter — June 30, the program’s expiration date — and that companies thus would need only about eight weeks’ worth of cash to survive.”

The Call – FYI: The Independent Restaurant Coalition is hosting a Zoom call tomorrow (Wednesday, April 29) at 11AM EST. “Chefs José Andrés, Nina Compton, Rosa Garcia, Naomi Pomeroy, Andrew Zimmern and several other members of the IRC will unveil the coalition’s call for a restaurant stabilization fund.” Register here (and please send me the Cliffs Notes version and your reactions because I plan to be in bed).

The Rollout – A quick sample of reopening rules in some states opening up this week: In Texas, “Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said his statewide stay-at-home order on coronavirus will expire on Thursday as scheduled, while Texas malls, stores, movie theaters and restaurants may open the next day — with 25% occupancy.” Twenty. Five. Percent. Details via Robert T. Garrett, Allie Morris, and James Barragán in the Dallas Morning News.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Ligaya Figueras reports the guidelines in Georgia are not exactly generous either: Gov. Brian Kemp’s “latest order requires restaurants to adhere to 39 guidelines, including screening employees for signs of illness, requiring all staffers to wear face coverings at all times, and limiting capacity to no more than 10 patrons per 500 square feet. Party sizes at tables are limited to no more than six.”

And in Tennessee, “Under the state's plan, restaurants are asked to require employees to wear gloves and masks, use disposable menus, have a maximum of 6 people per table, and limit overall occupancy to 50 percent capacity. Live music is prohibited with bar areas remaining closed. Restaurants are also asked to clean all front-of-house surfaces every two hours and halt any buffets, shared condiments or beverage stations.” Joel Ebert has that story in the Tennessean.

Shake your moneymakers! But modestly, and covered with PPE.

The New Deal – “Taxpayers will pay restaurants to make meals for millions of California’s seniors during the coronavirus pandemic, an initiative that could pump billions of dollars into a devastated industry while generating sales tax collections for cash-strapped local governments, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.” Video of the announcement is on PBS with reporting from the AP’s Adam Beam. Key point: “Local governments will choose which restaurants will make the food and get the money, decisions Newsom indicated would be based partly on nutrition. The program will favor ‘independent restaurants’ and produce from local farms.”

The Op-Ed – Headline in Eater: “The Chefs I Used to Admire Aren’t the Leaders We Need Right Now.” Eric Rivera of Addo in Seattle elaborates on some of the bombs he’s been throwing on Twitter lately, calling out statements from David Chang and Tom Colicchio as “reeking of privilege,” asking why Daniel Humm needs to set up a fundraiser for his staff at EMP when American Express is paying to keep the kitchen open for charity, and wondering whether Thomas Keller’s work to force business-interruption insurance payouts will actually “put a dishwasher in a better position to buy food or pay rent next week.”

To be fair to the accused, I have no idea what they’re doing for their staffs right now! I know Chang launched two new podcast concepts (“Mr. Moms” and bad movies), and (unlike Rivera) Colicchio thinks it is fundamentally unsafe for his staff to return to work in his kitchens, and maybe Keller can help found the Business Interruption Group and slip his dishwashers some cash under the white table cloth at the same time. But I don’t know much more… And I want to know. Hint hint, dear readers.

And last but not least: The (Black) Man Behind the Curtain – Headline in the SF Chronicle: “Black restaurants, non-black diners hit it off in a suddenly to-go world.” Anecdotal but convincing argument from Justin Phillips: “It seems the shelter-in-place order has leveled the playing field for black-owned mom-and-pop shops. Customers are now experiencing restaurants through takeout and delivery apps. Black-owned businesses like Rob Ben’s in Emeryville — which might have scared away white customers with its raucous ambiance, with rappers and neighborhood folks hanging around outside smoking and playing loud music — are now benefiting from a faceless, colorless business experience. It’s soul food without the soul food vibe, black baked goods without seeing black faces. All that matters is flavor and accessibility.”

Baby steps, people. Faceless, colorless, business-like baby steps.

And that’s it for today!

I’ll see you here Friday for next Family Meal.

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