Chanting “Save our restaurants!” frustrated restaurant owners and workers gathered under the noontime Miami sun to call attention to the order earlier in the week to close inside dining rooms because of the pandemic. Nick Sharp of Threefold Cafe, one of the organizers, called for “common-sense, well thought out actions, working together,” he told the crowd in front of the AmericanAirlines Arena. They want restaurant dining rooms to reopen until there’s clear evidence that closing them is part of a realistic plan to manage the spread of COVID-19.
Joining the protest were organizers Ani Meinhold and Cesar Zapata of Phuc Yea!, and representatives from Fratelli Milano and Vista, Grove Bay Hospitality, Kao and other restaurants along with smaller food businesses, like Mojo Donuts, Cao Chocolates, Azucar Ice Cream and Empanada Harry’s. Some, like Harry Coleman of Empanada Harry’s, are doing OK during the pandemic with takeout and delivery, but made the drive from West Kendall anyway. “We’re here to support our fellow restaurant family.”
As Miami-Dade’s positive cases reached 58,341, Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Gimenez issued a statement later Friday. “Unfortunately, restaurants are the only business where people must remove their masks to eat and drink, and with our current positivity rate throughout the county, it would be irresponsible and outright derelict for me to allow indoor dining at this time.“
Gimenez says the spike was caused by various factors – “all involving social gatherings without masks and little to no social distancing, whether at private parties at people’s homes, graduation parties, Memorial Day weekend parties and street protests, as well as at restaurants that turned into bars with people not practicing social distancing during the month of June.” That assessment, he says, came from medical experts at Jackson Health, U-Health and the medical schools from FIU and UM, as well as the Florida Department of Health.
Restaurant representatives are quick to point out that they’ve invested time and effort implementing rigorous CDC opening guidelines.“We have adapted and reinvented ourselves in efforts to keep our community fed, happy and safe,” reads a statement they issued.
But their efforts may not be enough to help them survive. The toll on the hospitality industry in South Florida has been devastating, with job losses and permanent closings. “It’s Armageddon,” says Felix Bendersky of F&B Leasing, a brokerage that caters to the restaurant community. “In January, restaurants were saying they were on track to have their best year ever,” he says. Now, he’s getting daily calls from owners to sell their businesses.
Bendersky, who teamed up with Soraya Kilgore three months ago to start the Miami Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, is well aware of the impact the closings have had on all workers. So far, they have raised more than $114,000 that’s gone in $250 grants to affected workers, including South Florida’s many undocumented workers who have few sources of financial relief. As the pandemic stretches on, he fears more closings are on the way.
“It’s really bad,” he says. “People are giving up.”
Updated: Miami restaurant industry individuals are gathering at 11am today in front of the American Airlines Arena to...
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