Gene & Georgetti was boarded up after looters smashed through a window and robbed the restaurant.
Photo: Collin PiersonFor many independent restaurants damaged amid civil unrest and curfews this past week, the challenges of bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic now seem even more daunting.
At Gene & Georgetti, a 79-year-old steakhouse in Chicago, looters smashed through a window with bricks last weekend, took point-of-sale machines and liquor, and walked up and down the mahogany bar.
“What they couldn’t pull off of the wall, they smashed,” said managing partner Michelle Durpetti.
Gene & Georgetti had started takeout service in April and was just starting to map out plans to restart service in its dining room, at diminished capacity. Now, Ms. Durpetti said, the only thing she is certain about is that date will be later than she had thought.
“It’s the gut punch of coming through all of this and now dealing with this break in,” she said.
The inside of Gene & Georgetti, before looters broke in...
Photo: Gene & Georgetti
...and after.
Photo: Collin PiersonLooting and curfews in cities across the country since George Floyd was killed in police custody in Minneapolis last week come as restaurants were preparing to reopen after weeks shut down as a result of the pandemic. Sit-down restaurants were already among the industry’s hardest hit by the pandemic that has kept Americans mostly in their homes since mid-March.
Many restaurant owners say they supported the peaceful protests and issues raised by demonstrators. They just wish the demonstrations had remained peaceful and hadn’t turned violent, coming at the expense of their establishments.
Among restaurants, many independent outfits lack the capital reserves of big corporations to cover higher pay for workers facing risk of infection as well as new equipment and supplies to keep diners and servers safe.
Blake Street Tavern owner Chris Fuselier says a curfew Denver has set has minimized downtown foot traffic again.
Photo: Willa DorganRoughly half of U.S. restaurant units are independently run, putting them at great risk when financial hardship falls. An estimated five to 10% of independent restaurant locations are expected to close as a result of the pandemic, as compared with 2 to 3 percent of chain units, according to a Stephens analysis.
Before the unrest following Mr. Floyd’s death, some 3.3% of restaurants across the country had permanently closed in the past six weeks, according to market-research firm Datassential, about the same percentage that typically close in eight months. There were some 660,000 eating and drinking establishments in the U.S. as of February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Blake Street Tavern, a sports bar in downtown Denver, reopened dine-in service on May 27 after shutting down in March, said owner Chris Fuselier. Sales had dropped 90% in that period, with its takeout business generating $19,000 in sales in April, compared with $480,000 in revenue at the tavern that month a year ago.
Unrest forced the tavern to close early last weekend. A curfew the city has set until Friday has minimized downtown foot traffic again, Mr. Fuselier said.
“People are already scared to go into restaurants,” he said.
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In Chicago, Sam Sanchez has been preparing for weeks to reopen patios and rooftop seating at his side-by-side restaurants Moe’s Cantina and Old Crow Smokehouse in the city’s River North neighborhood. Instead, he said, he is dealing with what he estimates to be $100,000 in damage after looters last weekend stripped the restaurants bare, shattering 14 windows at one restaurant and seven at the other.
He said they stole liquor, took the sound system and stripped art off the walls––some of which neighbors found later in the street. The worst part, he said, was watching surveillance video of looters taking a hammer to his computers and point-of-sale systems.
“It’s just so much hate,” said Mr. Sanchez, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 16 years old. “I couldn’t believe it. Why are you doing this?”
He said that the vandalism will delay reopening by at least a few days and that he expects insurance to eventually pay for the repairs.
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Scott Weiner, co-owner of Fifty/50 Restaurant Group in Chicago, said managers at some of the company’s 19 properties that are near where protests took place stood guard and protected them from damage. He hopes that tensions across the country will dissipate as more businesses open their doors this month.
“Reopening the economy will solve some of these issues on its own,” he said.
At Gene & Georgetti, Ms. Durpetti said the restaurant’s manager called 911 as the restaurant was being ransacked last weekend. Operators said they were too inundated with calls to respond, she said. The restaurant’s manager and chef stood outside the restaurant until dawn to protect it from further damage, she said.
Ms. Durpetti said she has submitted insurance claims for several thousands of dollars of damage at the restaurant, and is awaiting guidance from the mayor and governor about when dining rooms will be able to reopen. Officials allowed restaurants in Chicago to reopen some outdoor seating on Wednesday.
“I hope to reopen, but I couldn’t say when,” she said.
Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com and Julie Wernau at Julie.Wernau@wsj.com
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