"We need help immediately. If there's any way to survive as a small business, we need to be rescued."
New York City restaurants are struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus shutdown.
New York City restaurants are struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus shutdown.
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00:00It's scary because once you know that you're shutting down, you have no idea like how long it'll take to reopen.
00:04I hope from the government to help, you know, it's an emergency.
00:10Try to survive. It's like most likely day by day.
00:15We need help immediately. If there's any way for us to survive as a small business, we need to be rescued.
00:30We plan to like completely, you know, abide by what Cuomo had said.
00:43So we were planning to do takeout only because we're not equipped to do delivery.
00:47So we opened up, I think it was 8 a.m. on Monday morning, just doing our breakfast, daytime menu to go, coffee and pastries.
00:54We had a staff of like only three people because we laid off everybody Sunday night.
00:57So the three core people on our staff were working endlessly.
01:01And it became like really, really emotional, you know, like knowing that like I could potentially be putting my people in harm's way.
01:10So we, you know, I came to the conclusion on Wednesday that it just wasn't a good idea to continue going forward.
01:15I hope I can keep my doors open and I help as much as I can.
01:21I'm basically working for free, just, you know, just put some bread on somebody's table, whatever I can.
01:28So, and I can't last forever. You know, the weekend I have 16 people a shift, but I end up working with four people.
01:36So I had to really cut the hours.
01:40We just were left with no other choice but to let all of our staff go.
01:45It was painful and gut wrenching, but we simply just could not keep affording to pay.
01:52And we just hope that somehow we can survive this and reopen our doors one day and welcome our team back in.
02:00And in the meantime, we are selling all of our craft cocktails to go as well as beer and wine and snacks as well.
02:09And it's one way for the community to keep supporting us during this time.
02:14We are cutting down the employees' hours, their working hours and everything.
02:19But luckily, we don't have too many employees like a big restaurant.
02:25I heard that most of the big restaurants are already closed down, shut down.
02:29Now, we don't have exactly like a plan for like a week from now or anything like that.
02:37We are doing everything day by day.
02:40We set up for takeout. We are a restaurant that we don't usually do that.
02:53I've worked with these people. We've been open for five years and I spend, I mean, I work 80 to 100 hours a week.
02:59This is my family. And like to see everybody struggling to make rent.
03:05I mean, my general manager, he moved into my apartment two days ago because he literally, there's just no way that he was going to survive having to move into a new apartment on April 1st.
03:14We talk about small businesses. We talk about family businesses.
03:18Basically, small businesses and their family, we get, we spend so much time in the same environment.
03:24When I have to cut down the hours for my employees, it's hurting me as well.
03:31Emotionally before financially, because I see faces that kids and other families are going to struggle.
03:47I hope not, but I think many of our small business would not come back.
03:55Get us a bailout as soon as possible. Loans and grants aren't really going to help this situation.
04:00The best thing that I could think of right now, knowing my financial situation, is if the city could come in and survey everybody's rents and cut me a check or cut my landlord a check for the rent or come up with a program to, to basically like lower my rent long term, six months, four months.
04:19I mean, any of that would be great.
04:21Time for the government to step in and help small families, which is small businesses all over New York City.
04:28Rent is a really big part of whatever we make a day. It's like almost 20% goes to rent a day.
04:35So for now, we essentially don't have any, any revenue coming in.
04:41And like most businesses, we, we don't have cash reserves.
04:44We don't have access to a line of credit, but we still have our fixed costs.
04:49We have rent to pay and really there's no way for us to survive without direct cash assistance.