Relief round 2, Meyer image, Aid by state, Of critics and corona, and more...
Family Meal - Tuesday, April 7th, 2020
Hello Tuesday,
A bit thin today (sorry!), so going to try something a little different and start off with a question for you... Was genuinely surprised to hear a murmur last week that some folks were talking about scrapping this year’s James Beard Awards altogether.
Do you think the Beard Awards should go on this year? If not, why not? If so, when?
Please let me know what you think via comment or email! Also happy to hear from folks who reject the question and would instead like to rant about awards in general. Love me a good rant.
Let’s get to it…
The Relief – With the recently created “Paycheck Protection Program” SBA loans deep in SNAFU territory, groups leading the push for federal funding for the restaurant industry are looking ahead to the next phase of relief, whatever and whenever that may be. First up, fixing some of the problems they see in the last bill.
The Independent Restaurant Coalition is asking congress for three specific patches: 1. “Extend the maximum loan amounts to 3 months after we are allowed to reopen and operate at full capacity.” 2. “Increase the size of the [loan program] beyond the $350B and reinstate the $500 million gross revenue cap.” And 3. Increase the loan repayment to 10 years from its current 2 years.”
After that, they want a dedicated restaurant recovery fund of between $50-100B, tax breaks based on rent and number of employees, and for business interruption insurance to cover some shutdown costs regardless of fine print. Details here.
P.S. – Re that $500 million gross revenue cap, there’s this headline in the Wall Street Journal making the rounds: “Big Restaurant, Hotel Chains Won Exemption to Get Small Business Loans.” BUT, it’s behind the paywall (which means even more than usual, retweets / shares don’t equal reads), and the story from Bob Davis and Heather Haddon is a lot more nuanced and basically lists a bunch of chains and groups that won’t actually get the funding. The one wild card is Shake Shack, which is exploring application options even though a spokesman for Sen. Marco Rubio said it wouldn’t qualify for the funding.
Fun fact about Shake Shack: According to the story, its annual gross revenue is… about $500 million.
Side note: The Spokespeople – On this past Sunday night’s 60 Minutes, Melba Wilson of Melba’s restaurant in Harlem shared the spotlight with one of her recently laid-off employees, Alysha Navarro, and a Mr. Danny Meyer. Wilson and Navarro made for sympathetic figures, but I wonder if Meyer is really the most helpful voice right now? Obviously he has the industry chops and fame, but the hundreds of millions of dollars in his personal bank accounts from founding a massive, international burger chain make for a bit of a perception problem in a time of small business need. And maybe more importantly, there’s the fact that he has been adamant that he employs no undocumented workers at USHG, which doesn’t exactly make him a very effective speaker for some of the industry’s most vulnerable.
And it’s not just Meyer. I’m beginning to see the bubblings of a backlash (fair or not!) against some of the usual suspects taking the lead on TV. Here’s one particularly tough thread from Eric Rivera of Addo in Seattle, for a taste of more to come as this shakes out.
Look, what I’m saying is, if you guys need a newsletter writer to go on Hannity, I’m available.
The State Level – The team at “Restaurant Dive is tracking government funding on the state level — both grants and loans — that can be used to help pay employees and landlords, train staff and upgrade technology as they shift business models.” You can find that map / info here, and use it to cajole your own local government if you’re in one of the 36 states currently listed as “Provide No Aid.”
The Calculator – Usually don’t pass along tech company marketing content, but Seven Rooms sent me their “comprehensive PPP Loan Forgiveness Calculator” and it looks useful? No strings, and “Anyone can use it -- they simply need to make a copy of the Google Sheet.” Lmk if you see any other (ostensibly) helpful tools out there. Happy to include if not too gimmicky / sticky.
The Critics – Now that nearly every American restaurant critic has gotten their very own “What restaurants meant to me” piece out of their system — phew — it’s a good time to check in on them and see how each is taking their own path through this moment in critic history. So… No massive revelations, but a quick cross-section: The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema has stuck more or less to reviewing what restaurants are still selling. At NYT, both Tejal Rao and Pete Wells are filing mostly food business pieces, with Rao adding some recipes here and there for good measure. Eater NY’s Ryan Sutton has gone full bailout wonk. Grub Street’s Adam Platt is mining family f&b life for content (and memoir number 2?). At the LA Times, Bill Addison is mixing takeout tips with state-of-things stuff, while Patricia Escárcega seems to be mostly in advocate mode. Charleston’s Hannah Raskin is doing a mix of everything from Seder tips, to wild exposés (Charleston restaurant new to delivery accused of charging $18 for $2 frozen pizza), to stretch family-ties takes (Charleston-area restaurateurs’ siblings who own cafes in Europe worry for future of dining). And in SF, Soleil Ho has the unfortunate task of recording “a running list of businesses that have permanently closed since the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place orders began on March 17.”
One thing they all seem to have agreed upon: No negative reviews.
Anyway, you can open up all those tabs and compare and contrast, but I guess what I’m saying is: Critics are people, and people are community, and community is us, and we are the reason why we cooked in the first place, and ate, and laughed, and loved, and were, long before all of this happened — and will be long after it is over — humans.
And last and least – Apologies for recycling last night’s tweets here, but what are The Best Chef Awards thinking with these chefs vs. coronavirus illustrations? I mean, you think it’s obvious that they’re saying chefs are fighting / killing the virus with their metaphorical knives, until you get to Paul Bocuse just… straight up cooking it? And then you look back and realize that David Muñoz appears to be hunting and salivating over a fleeing (and sentient) SARS-CoV-2, and anyway, the implication of a chef in whites (or just an apron and sweats in the case of Alex Atala, of course) holding a knife over something is that they’re going to prepare that thing for eating, so if the average consumer’s subconscious hadn’t already begun associating restaurants and restaurant food with invisible death germs…
And that’s it for today!
I’ll see you here Friday for next Family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or between $50-100B, tax breaks based on rent and number of employees 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
P.S. – Re the Beards: My take is that they should do them sooner than later, without a celebration / ceremony if necessary. First, because the awards recognize 2019 work and memory of that long ago time is fading fast. Second, winners may find they can take the awards to the bank (or at least to smart investors) as some extra bona fides for whatever credit they may need. And third, as a presumptive winner in the newsletter division, it is my personal opinion that greatness be spotlighted, always.