17July 2020
Washington Gov. Inslee put a freeze on reopening up until the end of July, raising more questions about how restaurants and businesses will survive the pandemic.
SEATTLE– More dining establishment owners are understanding they may not have the ability to get better from the pandemic. That’s particularly true given that Gov. Jay Inslee put a< a href =" https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/jay-inslee-kathy-lofy-washington-coronavirus-response/281-bda3803a-b8ca-4a9a-9ad5-fccd792c2221 "rel="noopener noreferrer "target="
_ blank”> freeze on phases of reopening till July 28. The Downtown Seattle Association has been tracking the numbers and reports that a minimum of 65 Seattle locations have revealed long-term closures. Those locations consist of retail, night clubs, and restaurants. A majority of the closures have actually occurred downtown.
Downtown is where a bulk of Chef Tom Douglas ‘restaurants are located.
Around the city, there are some services boarded up and restaurants cleared out.
However it’s not all problem.”
Today we’re opening Serious Pie downtown, “Douglas stated Friday morning.”That’s our first among 13 to pick up.” Since March, Douglas was operating 13 restaurants.
When the stay-at-home orders went into effect, Douglas’restaurant personnel went from 850 to eight. Today, his staffing is at about 47 employees.” The greatest thing, for us, is extending the time frame to utilize our PPP dollars. You know, they went from eight weeks in the starting to 24 weeks. However with the governor threatening again to go back to closure and with particular locations of town just in lockdown, basically like the downtown core, you can’t utilize your money. And it’s all going to get sent back to the government, and that’s too bad. If they were to extend it even through completion of the year, that would be very practical,”Douglas
stated. At Lombardi’s Italian Restaurant in Everett, owner Kerri Lonergan-Dreke says sales are down about 35-40 %. However with a long history in the neighborhood, she is positive their doors will stay open.
” We have a really faithful consumer base, and we are fortunate that those folks continue to support
us,”stated Lonergan-Dreke. Clayton Krueger is with Farrelli’s Pizza in Tacoma. “We understood at the start of this thing that we required to do
everything that we could to remain open. The most significant obstacle for us was when we lost our employees, “Krueger stated.
Krueger stated with the state’s phased resuming, Farrelli’s Pizza has been able to bring a bulk of its 400 employees back.
Douglas stated what Seattle dining establishments and small companies need is the neighborhood’s assistance.
“I have actually been telling individuals that I feel like 75 % of the restaurants will come back, “Douglas said.” There’s no cruise ships to conserve us. There’s no hotel people, there’s very few travelers to save us. We as a community have to decide that we wish to bring the market back.”