PPP haunting, NFTs minting, Michelin teasing, McNally accounting, and more...
Family Meal - Friday, March 25th, 2022
Hello Friday,
Programming note: As mentioned in Tuesday’s Family Meal (which is copy / pasted below for non-paying subscribers as usual), my family and I are joining what CNN calls “tens of thousands of Hong Kongers” leaving the city this week. Tomorrow will be the first time my wife and kids have left the city in over two years.
In other words: There will be no Family Meal next week while we get settled into our temporary housing. Paid subscriptions will go on pause, and if you miss my chatter you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram.
But for now, I am in that harried state of a parent packing, so…
Let’s get to it…
The Unforgiven – Headline in Restaurant Hospitality: “BLT Steak owner files for bankruptcy after being unable to pay back PPP loans. BLT Restaurant Group filed for bankruptcy after it received a PPP loan but was unable to ‘restart and engage’ its locations and entice employees to come back.” Details via Joanna Fantozzi: “40% of the company’s Paycheck Protection Program loan ($1.3 million of $3.3 million) was not forgiven by the federal government… During 2020, BLT Restaurant Group suffered a $7.6 million loss of income.”
The company says it “was unable to convince many employees to return to work in order to comply with the terms of the PPP loan.” Presumably, that means they spent money on something other than labor in the hopes future cash flow could be shuffled around to cover the cost? And there are bound to be a lot of other restaurants in that same situation. Last month, the Dallas Morning News reported: “While the vast majority of the 5.14 million PPP loans approved in 2020 have been forgiven — and many borrowers had a smooth process — as of early January [2022], there were 349,372 unforgiven loans and another 380,000 that were partially forgiven.”
At the time, unforgiven PPP loans totaled $28B. And those are just the nice, low-interest government loans…
The NFTs – Looks like mint day for Tom Colicchio and Spike Mendelson’s “CHFTY” NFT project went… OK? At time of writing, folks in their Discord are saying about 2,000 of 2,777 pizza-themed NFTs have been sold on day one. At 0.07 ETH a pop, that’s closing in on half a million USD in day one revenue. Looking at NFT marketplace OpenSea, it may be that a lot of people bought multiple CHFTYs, and some chefs involved in the project are either bullish or propping it up or both (Rocco DiSpirito bought at least a dozen and Jennifer Carroll is in for a few). But… very early days! We shall see, we shall see, how goeth the NFTs.
The TikTokkers – Speaking of brave new(ish) F&B revenue models, I love how easy Brandon Skier makes things sound in this Eater interview: “How I Got My Job: Becoming a TikTok Star After Being a Line Cook.” Skier says: “I had downloaded TikTok just to pass the time and I kept seeing food videos. I was like, ‘I can do that.’ So I just posted a video and said, ‘Hey, I’m a cook. If I started posting food videos, would anybody be interested in watching?’ And I think that video got over a million views in a day, so I just started posting short little videos of recipes and cooking hacks from a restaurant worker and it blew up.”
Results may vary, but… Also this week, the Chronicle’s Jess Lander reports wine influencers are getting huge on TikTok too: “As of March 1, hashtags like #winetok and #winetiktok had nearly 200 million views on the app, while #wine was approaching 6 billion.” Headline: Why TikTok — not Instagram — is a rising platform for winemakers desperate to lure Millennials.”
And the NYT’s Becky Hughes is out with a story on how some food businesses are having a hard time adjusting to moves made by Instagram earlier this year. You’ll never guess their solution: ”One newly favored way for a company to end reliance on Instagram’s algorithm: Move to another platform. PJ Monte, the founder of Monte’s Fine Foods, turned his attention away from Instagram and toward TikTok. ‘With basically no followers on TikTok, I’ve had two videos gain a few million views,’ Mr. Monte said.”
Love to jump from one gorilla’s back to another! Good luck, all!
Michelin Season – On Wednesday, Michelin did its new pre-Bib tease in Chicago, with “23 additions to the MICHELIN Guide Chicago selection. These establishments are highlighted as… new discoveries before the annual announcement of Bib Gourmands and Stars.” Ashok Selvam has a breakdown in Eater Chicago here. Full list on the official site here.
And last but not least: The Raises – Ukraine charity efforts are giving us a fun glimpse into revenue numbers at some of Keith McNally’s NYC places this week. Tuesday night totals (possibly influenced by the charity promotion) per McNally on Instagram: $28,106 at Morandi; $28,045 at Minetta Tavern; and $65,197 at Balthazar. Not bad early week takes… And all will be matched by a Balthazar regular and sent to UNICEF.
Side note 1: Interesting that McNally chose not to donate the money to food world favorite World Central Kitchen, whose leader José Andrés is currently implying on Twitter that UNICEF is missing in action in Ukraine…
Side note 2: McNally’s total for one full night in three Manhattan restaurants was $121k (without the match), which is great and generous(!), but still less than Ruth Reichl and Nancy Silverton raised in one night at Silverton’s house a couple weeks ago (menu here). Their total was $150k.
Not that it’s a competition or anything.
As in politics, a big base of small donors is great, but it pays to have rich friends! (Silverton and Reichl’s take went to WCK.)
And that’s it for today! Except of course for Tuesday’s paid edition, which is copy/pasted below as usual.
Please send all your best air travel luck and Indonesia tips my way, and I will see everyone back here the week after next for next Family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or short little videos of recipes and cooking hacks from a restaurant worker to andrew@thisfamilymeal.com. If you like Family Meal and want to keep it going, please chip in here. If you got this as a forward, sign up for yourself!
Here begins the Family Meal that went out to paying subscribers on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022. If you’d like to get Tuesdays’ on Tuesdays too…
DC sues, Serviced tips, Media moves, Aoki heisted, and more...
Hello Tuesday,
And hello to paying subscribers only!
Hong Kong continues to be a mess and (for myriad personal reasons) we are officially (temporarily) getting off the ride. On Saturday we leave HK for an undisclosed Indonesian island that starts with a ‘B’ and rhymes with the white powder in that huge baggie I found on the ground at Coachella 2010.
If you’ve got any great tips for that island, I’ll take ‘em! Unfortunately, the adults still have to work and the kids still have Zoom school, so I’m taking next week off Family Meal to help get us settled. As this is an unplanned “vacation,” I will pause paid subscriptions for the week.
Apologies for the interruption, and thanks so much for sticking with me while we sort this out!
Let’s get to it…
The Suits – Last night, Washington DC’s Attorney General Karl Racine announced on Twitter that the District is joining several other cities in going after big delivery in court: “We're suing Grubhub for misleading District residents and taking advantage of local restaurants to boost its own profits. Grubhub charges hidden fees and uses bait-and-switch tactics, all while pretending to help local businesses during the pandemic.” Racine alleges Grubhub is: “Failing to disclose when it charges higher prices than restaurants; Impersonating DC restaurants to get more business for Grubhub; [and] Advertising ‘free’ services that aren’t actually free.” The suit also echoes complaints Chicago has made about Grubhub’s “Supper for Support” pandemic promotion, where Grubhub offered discounts but passed those costs onto restaurants. Full complaint here.
Grubhub’s response sounds at least a little like an admission of some kind of skeeze: “Our practices have always complied with DC law, and in any event, many of the practices at issue have been discontinued.”
The Suits Too – Per Reuters’s Daniel Weissner, another US court has ruled mandatory service charges in restaurants do not have to be treated as tips, and can be used to cover base wages instead: “An 18% service charge added to customers' bills at an upscale Miami steakhouse owned by the celebrity chef known as ‘Salt Bae’ was not a tip, and the restaurant properly used the money to pay workers' hourly wages, a U.S. appeals court said on Friday. Ruling on an issue of first impression, a panel of the 11th Circuit said the key feature of a tip is that it is entirely within a customer's discretion, but the fee charged by Nusr-Et Steakhouse was mandatory…. The ruling is in line with a 2020 4th Circuit decision that said a restaurant's automatic 20% gratuity for large parties did not qualify as a tip.” Food & Wine also has a good explainer here.
The Media – Longtime Eater DC associate editor Tierney Plumb is now the full time editor of Eater DC. These links will take you to her Twitter and Instagram.
And speaking of DC, former Washington City Paper food editor Laura Hayes has a new job you should know about... She tweets: “Proud to be joining the incredible team at World Central Kitchen as the Chef Relief Network manager. My focus will be on growing an engaged network of culinary professionals who are committed to the organization's mission and will be prepared to help when needed. I start April 4.”
P.S. NB NYC: Forgot to mention last week that the NYT has a new “Where To Eat: New York City” newsletter coming out for subscribers starting today. It’s supposed to have senior staff editor “Nikita Richardson’s restaurant recommendations, from new places to beloved classics,” so if you’ve got a place in the city, you should probably be following Richardson’s socials too: Twitter here; Instagram here. Definitely not anonymous.
And Last and Least: The Heist – Via Laine Doss in the New Times: “This past Saturday afternoon, Kevin Aoki was preparing to ship some of his most treasured family heirlooms from Miami to Hawaii. The second-generation restaurateur, son of the late Hiroaki ‘Rocky’ Aoki, founder of the Benihana restaurant empire, packed most of the items into the 40-foot shipping container himself; the precious cargo included handmade furniture and priceless artifacts and memorabilia handed down to him from his father.” It was supposed to help fill a new Aoki restaurant on Oahu, but in the middle of the night someone pulled up a semi, hitched it to the trailer, and just… drove away into the night.
The true crime podcast writes itself. (Or I’d be glad to do it, for a fee…)
And that’s it for today!
I will see you all back here on Friday for next Family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or ‘free’ services that aren’t actually free to andrew@thisfamilymeal.com. If you like Family Meal and want to keep it going, please chip in here. If you got this as a forward, sign up for yourself!
Oh, and PS - If any of you do have any good Bali tips, please do tell!