Philadelphia Medicine Winter-Spring 2021 - 10

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FEATURE

COVID-19 Mitigation
Rules Stymie Business
Restaurants, Bars, Taverns
on Financial Cliff
By Andy Andrews, Editor

or restaurants, COVID-19 has gone on a long time.
Perhaps too long.

Despite a patchwork of money that has trickled from the
state, including the recent grant allocation of $145 million to help
them, tavern and bar owners are still in a struggle to survive.

To mom-and-pop tavern and small restaurant owners, according
to an association director, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a very
hard-hitting issue.

Restaurant owners not only are re-inventing themselves during
the pandemic, but some are helping frontline workers get fed and
cared for.

" Last August, we did a survey of 100 small-business mom-andpop operations across the state to see how long they could survive
if nothing changes, " said Chuck Moran, executive director of the
Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage and Tavern Association in Harrisburg
(www.PaTaverns.com), which has about 500 members, including
in the Philadelphia area.

For Philadelphia's Fork Restaurant owner Ellen Yin, worrying
about the health of wait staff and customers has been " nerve-wracking, " she said.

" At that time, our poll was running right in line with national
polls that suggested that if nothing changes, the deeper this gets into
the pandemic, we can expect up to 70% not making it, " Moran said.

And the costs pile up.
For Ray's Happy Birthday Bar in Philadelphia, Rosemary
Capozzoli said the bills keep coming in, the electric and gas, she
said, which " takes a toll. "
Some restaurants, such as Caribou Café, which reopened Feb. 2
at 1126 Walnut St., Philadelphia, the website home page describes
the " strict restrictions, " the café notes, per the Pennsylvania Health
Department, " for the safety of our staff and our customers. "
But according to Caribou General Manager Matthew Casella,
being closed from the end of November until reopening Feb. 2
" really did sting, " he said.

$145 million funding
In mid-February, Pennsylvania announced that the COVID-19
Hospitality Industry Recovery Program will allocate $145 million
in funding assistance to the hospitality industry businesses adversely
affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program requires counties
to establish grant programs for eligible businesses.
10 Philadelphia Medicine : Winter-Spring 2021

Since then, things have changed a little bit for the industry.
" We were successful in getting $145 million for the industry
through the state government, " he said.
Moran said he represents small-business taverns and licensed
restaurants, " really your neighborhood mom-and-pop businesses, "
he said. " I don't represent the Chili's or the Applebee's that have
liquor licenses.
" I also don't represent the places that don't have liquor licenses,
typically your diners and so forth. "
This pandemic has negatively impacted the small-business momand-pops and their employees.
In general, in a nutshell, according to Moran, while these small
businesses have been patient, some of them have their backs up
against a wall and they're not in a good situation.
Some places in the state have enacted more strict regulations for
mom-and-pop businesses. With difficulty, the owners are trying to
obey the rules, but it gets tougher every day.

https://philamedsoc.org/ http://www.PaTaverns.com

Philadelphia Medicine Winter-Spring 2021

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