It’s a difficult situation — keeping a business open while balancing public health regulations to keep surging coronavirus cases at bay.
Doug Bacon, owner of eight Boston restaurants through the Red Paint Hospitality Group, where he is president, and Greg Reibman, president of the Newton-Needham Regional Chamber of Commerce, joined the Codcast to discuss the perfect storm that has left thousands of restaurants across the state floundering or shuttering.
Four of Bacon’s restaurants have reopened successfully, while another two had to be shut down after reopening temporarily but not getting enough foot traffic.
Bacon’s restaurants, which include the White Horse Tavern, Hopewell Bar and Kitchen, the Westland, and the Corner Tavern, had 196 pre-COVID employees, some who had worked for him for over a decade. After layoffs, he is down to about 45.
The conversation covered measures the businesses are taking to keep employees and customers safe, the push for financial support from the federal and state governments, and a critique of a few of Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening restrictions.
Reibman’s organization meets weekly with restaurant owners — who make up a large chunk of the chamber’s members — to hear their concerns and offer support.
“It’s just heartbreaking. We have these men and women who have invested their lives in their careers in building these businesses and the restaurant business has never been easy,” he said. “Margins have never been good and suddenly they’ve been asked to, you know, pivot so many times in the past nine months.”
From closure to take-out and curbside pick-up and outdoor dining, and then indoor seating with strong restrictions, the carousel hasn’t stopped turning for restaurant owners. Cold weather and customers wanting to stay home instead of eating on outdoor patios has driven some of the decline in customers. But Reibman and Bacon said the state’s hodge-podge of rules is confusing and Reibman said some of the rules pushed by Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito aren’t justifiable.
For Bacon, one of those guidelines is stopping in-person dining at 9:30 p.m., which started in November. “We were hobbling along and sort of getting by and breaking even previously. But now with the 9:30 p.m. closing, it’s been even more difficult,” he said.
Bacon hopes Baker will loosen up that restriction and remind people that the spike in COVID-19 cases isn’t coming from indoor dining. He and Reibman both believe that restaurants following all regulations are safer environments for people to eat at than indoor gatherings without safety measures in place.
“The data shows that restaurants are overwhelmingly doing what they’re supposed to do,” said Reibman. Out of 11,000 inspections from the beginning of the pandemic through August, over 97 percent were in compliance.
If Bacon got a sit-down with Baker, he said he would ask him to scrap the early closing time and crack down on enforcement. ”If you want to make sure restaurants are safe, increase the enforcement to make sure everyone is following the rules and talk to the public about the statistics that prove that indoor dining is not causing the problem with the increases in COVID cases,” he said.
Both were concerned that the state and federal governments aren’t doing enough to provide financial help to restaurants. Bacon was able to get Paycheck Protection Program money during a relief package issued over six months ago, but the funds are long gone to employee paychecks and rent.
Congress gave tentative approval to a stimulus package over the weekend, which includes a $300 billion boost to the Paycheck Protection Program.
SARAH BETANCOURT
FROM COMMONWEALTH
Sen. John Velis of Westfield discloses he is a recovering alcoholic who got started on his path to recovery with the help of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and many others.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo sets in motion a handoff of his job to House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano. Rep. Russell Holmes says he intends to mount a campaign for speaker.
The Massachusetts Cultural Council picks a new leader, Michael Bobbitt.
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, already battling with Attorney General Maura Healey, is now tangling with Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz.
Gov. Charlie Baker is still optimistic about meeting state vaccine goals despite less-than-expected initial deliveries.
Baker files a bill to ease unemployment insurance costs for businesses.
Opinion: House progressives need to cry foul about the inside politics playing out in the anointing of House Majority Leader Ron Mariano as speaker, say Reps. Jonathan Hecht of Watertown and Denise Provost of Somerville. … Firefighter union leader Paul Jacques says contracting COVID-19 should qualify as being injured on duty. … Wait, we’re now No. 2 in energy efficiency? ask Charlie Harak of the National Consumer Law Center and Rep. Josh Cutler of Duxbury.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
BEACON HILL
Boston Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld decries the wired handoff in the works to crown Rep. Ronald Mariano the new House speaker after the expected departure of Robert DeLeo from the post he’s held for 12 years. Globe columnist Adrian Walker talks to Rep. Russell Holmes about his decision to run for speaker and protest the backroom ways of the House that shut out dissent and debate.
Advocates are hoping body-camera recordings of Boston police bragging about roughing up racial justice protesters earlier this year will help push police reform legislation over the finish line on Beacon Hill. (Boston Herald)
An unnamed state representative tests positive for COVID-19. (MassLive)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt tests positive for COVID-19. (The Salem News)
Dozens of marchers call for peace and remember a 15-year-old boy who was shot and killed by a 22-year-old in Holyoke. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
The first shots using the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine could begin Monday across the US. (Associated Press)
After months of sickness and death, Cape Cod health care workers hail the arrival of a vaccine. (Cape Cod Times)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Congress seals a deal on COVID-19 relief and government funding. (Associated Press) What’s in the federal stimulus package? (USA Today)
Eric Clapton and Van Morrison release an anti-mask anthem. (Vanity Fair)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley received the first of two vaccine shots Saturday and urged constituents to similarly guard themselves against the coronavirus. (GBH)
ELECTIONS
This is becoming a recurring headline, but today’s installment from the Washington Post is, “A frustrated Trump redoubles efforts to overturn election result.”
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The Sunday Globe took an in-depth look at how the pandemic’s impact on one block of Water Street, in Boston’s financial district, ripples through the global economy.
A manufacturing plant in Andover is making the messenger RNA that goes in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. (Eagle-Tribune)
The president of Encore Boston Harbor denies rumors that the Everett casino is for sale. (MassLive)
EDUCATION
Advocates and some Boston city councilors want to give the School Committee’s non-voting student representative voting rights on the panel like the mayoral appointees. (Boston Herald)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Gov. Charlie Baker is expected to announce this week that Massachusetts is joining the Transportation and Climate Initiative, and will release a memorandum of understanding between participating states. (The Salem News)
State officials want to ban lobstering for several months per year to help save the endangered right whale, but the move would have a devastating effect on hundreds of commercial lobstermen. (Boston Globe)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
The Middleton Jail has 69 active COVID-19 cases, though most prisoners have no or mild symptoms. (Eagle-Tribune)
Democrats, including, apparently, Suffolk DA Rachael Rollins, are jockeying for possible appointment as US attorney for Massachusetts with the change in administrations in Washington. (Boston Herald)
The Enterprise writes about the impact emails sent by prosecutor John Bradley, who sued the Plymouth County district attorney’s office for wrongful termination, had on other cases.
A former employee of the state’s Division of Unemployment Assistance is arrested for falsely applying for more than $240,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance funds. (MassLive)
In the first of several stories, DigBoston documents conditions at MCI-Framingham, the oldest all-women’s prison still in operation in the US.
MEDIA
The New York Times retracts its “Caliphate” podcast series and returns the Peabody award it won. Canadian authorities have accused the man at the center of the podcast who allegedly joined ISIS of perpetrating a hoax. (NPR)