Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Robert St. John: Help is on the Way

One year ago today, my life seemed to be at a complete standstill. The global pandemic was shifting into second gear, my city and state were shut down except for essential businesses, and the six restaurants and two bars I had spent 32 years of my life building were all closed. The situation was dire and the future looked bleak. My wife, two children, and I were holed up at our house which I wasn’t sure we’d even be living in a few months down the road. I was doing what I could to help our 300 furloughed team members and the community and state at large, but all future outlooks seemed grim.

On March 19th I received an early-morning text from an industry friend who mentioned that a group of concerned chefs and restaurateurs from across the country had met the previous day via Zoom to try and figure out what could be done to save the restaurant industry from a mass extinction event. I joined the group for their second meeting later that morning, not knowing anyone on the video call or what lay ahead on several fronts.

The Independent Restaurant Coalition was born out of a crisis and had one single mission— to save the independent restaurant industry. The fast-food franchises in my hometown had lines at the drive-through window that stretched for blocks, and the chain restaurants seemed to be getting by in the crisis. Most were publicly traded and had access to capital. The small mom-and-pop cafes and diners in my town were going out of business at a frightening rate.

I met with my fellow IRC members via Zoom twice a day, seven days a week, for the first month or so. I knew none of them, personally. I knew several by reputation and there were a few high-profile celebrity chefs and restaurateurs on the calls, but for the most part, we were a collection of everyday, concerned local businesspeople whose industry was in crisis and on the verge of annihilation.

Over 15% of the nation’s 500,000 independent restaurants had already closed, and the people who compile such statistics were predicting that 85% of the nation’s independent restaurants could close permanently if something weren’t done to save the industry.

In one of those early meetings— it might have been the first meeting I joined, I don’t remember— a wine broker from South Carolina, Harry Root, made the statement, “If anyone knows a congressperson or senator, let us know.” I messaged Root that I knew my home-state senator, Roger Wicker, and he replied, “You are my new best friend.”

Root and I began working with Senator Wicker and his staff later that morning, and within weeks, Senator Wicker introduced the RESTAURANTS Act on the floor of the Senate, to compliment a similar bill introduced by Representative Earl Blumenauer in the House of Representatives. Within several weeks— and impressively only eight weeks after the IRC was formed— three of our members were meeting in the White House discussing the plight of independent restaurants.

Over the next several months members of the IRC worked tirelessly to garner support for both bills. We held hundreds of meetings with Senators, Representatives, and their staffs and sent over 100,000 emails to Congress. By September— just six months from that first meeting— the House had passed the RESTAURANTS Act and the Senate had 52 members from both sides of the aisle on board.

In the meantime, over 2,400,000 people who work in independent restaurants were out of work. Over 65,000 of the nation’s 500,000 independent restaurants had closed their doors permanently, and the nation’s number two employer was on the brink of total collapse.

After the national election, and with a new congress seated— almost a year to the day the IRC held its first meeting— congress passed the first-ever grant relief program for restaurants and bars. The $28.6 billion program was modeled after the RESTAURANTS Act and used the same structure and guidelines that had been established several months earlier. 

The new $28.6 billion restaurant grant fund will help countless independent restaurants and bars make payroll, pay down debt, and survive the ongoing pandemic. What started as a few independent restaurant operators on a Zoom call has become a grassroots movement with over 150,000 people enthusiastically engaged.

I was speaking to a journalist last week who asked, “Now that you’ve gotten your bill passed, what’s next for the IRC?” Actually, our work is only halfway done. We are now working all available channels to make sure that all independent restaurants and bars have access to the funds. It’s one of the things that makes me most proud to have been a founding member of the IRC. Many trade groups would get a bill such as ours passed, and then lay low making sure there would be enough grant funds to go around to the select group at the top who were plugged in.

The IRC is doing the opposite of that and exhausting every outlet available to get the word out to the smallest of the small operators. We are working side-by-side with the administrator of the grant funds— the Small Business Administration, and the White House— to make sure that access is easy and legit. We have been hosting hundreds of community roundtables to disseminate the latest information on the bill.

The process as it currently stands is a cumbersome one involving a DUNS number and the registration for the System for Award Management (SAM). In this dire time, the IRC feels that the government should be making it easier for eligible restaurants to apply for grants, not harder.  Registering for DUNS and SAM takes time and expertise, which will stand as a roadblock to many small businesses who qualify for funding. The same system the Department of Defense uses to pay military contractors shouldn't be what the SBA uses to pay independent restaurants. We at the IRC are pushing for the SBA to change the process and remove unnecessary barriers to entry for eligible neighborhood restaurants which will simplify the process for grant application.

In the meantime, the grant application process requires DUNS and SAM registration, so we suggest that the independent restaurant and bar community register for them immediately, in case they remain a part of the application process.

If you know an independent restaurant or bar owner who qualifies for grant aid to get back on their feet, steer them to the IRC’s website www.saverestaurants.com and tell them to stay plugged in as this process moves forward in the coming weeks.

It’s funny, when I started meeting with the IRC, I assumed everyone on those Zoom calls already knew each other and I was the odd man out. What I came to learn, several months in, is that most of us didn’t know each other when the calls began. We were a diverse group from various backgrounds and different parts of the country with varied levels of operations. Though we were all so focused on one goal— saving the independent restaurant industry— that we became a familial collective working towards one shared objective. Willie Morris called such things a “common mutuality.” Today, just a little over one year later, I consider those members close friends.

Help is on the way.

Onward.

 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wicker voted against this.

Please stop the misinformation.

Anonymous said...

Why do you think Wicker voted against you? Did you take it personally?

Anonymous said...

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Ronald Reagan

I'm glad to see these restaurants trying to hang in there but I am afraid this was just a dress rehearsal for the next time the government decides to take your livelihood away so grandma might not die. The next thing is when the government decides to go with a vaccine passport. a large number of people will not take this vaccine so when businesses shut those people out they will suffer again. At that point I will wish them to fail because they will be bringing it on themselves.

In Hattiesburg people applaud every time Mayor Barker loosens the noose a little. It is insane that these unconstitutional mandates ares still in effect. Will the mayor continue this until there is absolutely no chance anyone will possibly contract a virus that has a 99.97% recovery rate? I saw a photo of him in his Suburban by himself with a mask on. It takes courage to look like that much of a dbag.

At some point people need to resist. If you are a double or triple masker and waiting in line to get vaccinated feel free to continue this lifestyle. That being said please do not think you should be able to tell me I have to live like this.

I'm not afraid of dying near as much as I am afraid of living without liberty. It's coming folks. I hope I am wrong but this is just getting started.....


Anonymous said...

It's reported that a majority of restaurants go out of business in the first 4-5 years anyway (without a pandemic), and the median lifespan of most restaurants is 4.5 years. I am interested only in the numbers for the restaurants which are already over 5 years old. One source reports that the total annual failure rate for all restaurants is about 12%. The numbers reported in this article show around 13% in the U.S. pandemic's first six months, or about double the normal.

Around here, we have an eatery on just about every commercial block. If the reported failure rate continued, we would lose around 1/4 of them (instead of 1/8 of them) annually, not accounting for new ones. While that's certainly bad for a significant portion of folks who work in that industry, it's hardly cause for panic among the customers, because there's likely another establishment within walking distance. Long term, the math that says losing 1/4 of the restaurants annually means that they will all be gone in 4 years is not correct, as the economics of the situation will provide a balance with a sustainable number of restaurants remaining. Just like the non-pandemic number of 12% does not result in zero restaurants after 8 years. That sustainable number is dependent on demand.

Anonymous said...

Roger “timber investor” Wicker and Cindy “public lynchin” Smith both voted to screw restaurants.

That should be the tag line.

Instead there is no mention of the fact that joe Biden signed a bill that no Republican voted yes for.

Let that sink in.

Your elected officials left you out to die.

Spin all you want....you are not important to them.

Anonymous said...

If you think the Harris Biden admin is looking out for you I really feel for you. No One is looking out for any of us Republican or Democrat. Unfortunately its The Elite and Ruling class against the rest of us. This is one reason we (the normal people) are constantly pitted against each other. There is real benefit to keeping the racial and social justice rolling. As long as we are against each other we will never see who we really should be against.

I do not hate the people who do not see things the same way I do because that is what is wanted. I simply ask to be left alone and allowed to make my decisions.

There are people running things far above Wicker and Hyde and Biden. I actually feel sorry for Biden. His wife should not have allowed this. He will be gone by the end of the year. I am wondering what they will do because they can't admit he has mental problems. I suspect a scandal might be in his future. Possibly a good use for Hunter.

Anonymous said...

Wicker voted against the bill but he claimed credit for the restaurant relief. He did push for it.

Anonymous said...

So wicker voted for it before he voted against it?

How about this “wicker voted for no money to go to any restaurants.”

Fixed it

Anonymous said...

Both of our U.S. Senators voted for ZERO dollars for restaurant owners and their employees. Don't give them credit for something they did not do.

Anonymous said...

The following applies to owners of larger operations and/or multiple locations who were making good money pre-COVID. The mom-n-pop operation owners are owner/workers IMO, not "restaurant owners" in this context. The fact that some "operation"/"celebrity chef" owners occasionally visited each of their locations doesn't make them "owner/workers" in this context. I know or know about a few owners who didn't need personal help, so they didn't whine or ask for help. Plus they did what they could for their workers. Good for them.

That said:

Maybe Mr. Wicker, et al, read some of Mr. St. John's writings and just figured with $500 toasters, gracious dining out, and trips to Europe, the restaurant _owners_ did not need, much less deserve, any "help." The workers might not have been earning what they were pre-COVID, but they did get some help. Personally, I'm perfectly fine with that.

Until we start helping those who actually need it because they never had a chance to "build up a nest egg" rather than those who had repeated chances to help themselves but pissed them all away, we won't make nearly as much progress as some may think we are. And that's true of restaurant owners, law firms, airlines, and every other "owner" looking to latch onto a cheap or free tit. I am a business owner (not restaurants but I know a lot of them) and I didn't need, want, "deserve," and certainly did not and would not take a fucking penny. I am thankful that I had numerous chances to prepare for bad times and I took advantage of them. I could easily buy (and pay for on the spot) a $500 (or a $50,000) toaster and it wouldn't effect my lifestyle one bit but it would never enter my mind to do something like that. Which is why I can afford to do it.

TL/DR - Fuck the owners - yeah, including me - who had lots of chances to prepare for these things and help the workers (and owner/workers) who never got even a single one.


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Trollfest '07 was such a success that Jackson Jambalaya will once again host Trollfest '09. Catch this great event which will leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Othor Cain and his band, The Black Power Structure headline the night while Sonjay Poontang returns for an encore performance. Former Frank Melton bodyguard Marcus Wright makes his premier appearance at Trollfest singing "I'm a Sweet Transvestite" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Kamikaze will sing his new hit, “How I sold out to da Man.” Robbie Bell again performs: “Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Bells” and “Any friend of Ed Peters is a friend of mine”. After the show, Ms. Bell will autograph copies of her mug shot photos. In a salute to “Dancing with the Stars”, Ms. Bell and Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith will dance the Wango Tango.

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In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The “Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless” booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word “jackass” was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.


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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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