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For West Side Tavern owners Westley Isbutt and Debra Heiser, winter means trouble.
“It seems that our quantity of customers is the same as the temperature. 80 degrees 80 customers, 8 degrees (eight) customers. Winter is here, but the tavern may not be for much longer,” they stated in a recent Facebook post.
The tavern, which has been in business for three and a half years, has been a neighborhood gathering place not just recently but for more than 100 years, according to Isbutt.
“We are in a 1915 grocery store, which has (remained) a commercial property through all these years,” he said. “It was declared a historic site in the late ’70s not because of the architecture, because it was a neighborhood gathering point … all to say, it was important,” he said.
With the coronavirus pandemic, things have gone from bad to worse, and the drop in temperatures and incoming colder months have made business “really damn hard,” Isbutt said.
“We are spending 20% to 25% more in labor costs to do 50% less business,” he said. “It doesn't matter what I do, there is a fear to go out to a restaurant.”
Isbutt’s experience is not isolated, and as the temperatures turn colder, pressure is heating up to find solutions to sustain restaurants.
Tight margins, community engines
The restaurant industry is unique and operates within tight margins, said Bobby Stuckey, co-founder of the Independent Restaurant Coalition and owner of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder.
The coalition has brought together industry representatives from around the country to urge Congress to pass the Restaurants Act of 2020, a plan that carries bipartisan support and would establish a $120 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
“Society knows what the airline industry needs but society never heard from restaurants. In 2008, we never put our hand out saying we were hurting, but this is such a unique situation for restaurants,” Stuckey said of the pandemic, this year’s federal bailout of the aviation industry and of federal bailouts in the past.
Independent bars and restaurants account for about 76% of the industry nationwide, he said. “Society needs … restaurants,” he said.
It is anticipated the loss in sales for the restaurant and food service industry will tally $240 billion by the end of the year, according to the National Restaurant Association. With 83% of adults reporting they are not eating at restaurants as often as they would like, off-premises business, including curbside takeout, third-party delivery, in-house delivery and drive-thru, is what has mitigated some of the impact, according to a recent association report.
The food category, which includes restaurants, food trucks and coffee shops, accounted for $22.9 million in 2019 city sales tax revenue, according to a December 2019 analysis from the Longmont Sales and Use Tax Division.
Locally, 235 food establishments, including some food trucks based outside of the city, paid Longmont sales tax in August, according to Longmont Chief Financial Officer Jim Golden.
What next?
What is unclear is if those alternatives will be enough to sustain local restaurants when winter weather and new COVID-related restrictions further limit dine-in capacities.
Lori Abramson, owner of Cavegirl Coffeehouse, said she had to close for two months at the beginning of the pandemic because takeout-only businesses did not cover payroll. The spring and summer weather were great for business, but now she said was thinking about creative solutions in the case of another surge in COVID cases, even before health officials on Wednesday announced that Boulder County on Friday was moving to Safer at Home Level Orange: High Risk on the state’s dial dashboard — which was previously called Safer at Home Level 3.
“I’m looking at doing more of an online presence. Ordering online and being able to pick up. If Governor Polis says we have to close up again … I’ll have to try to do something where if I go back to limited hours and less staff, at least I can still offer to my diehards.”
With large indoor and outdoor spaces, Abramson recognizes she is in a unique position to comfortably comply with health guidelines and she has seen business increase month to month since reopening. As a coffee shop with a large space with free Wi-Fi, customers can visit Cavegirl to work, have meetings and just hang out. Abramson said she recognizes others might not share her luck.
Summit Tacos owner Alejando Rodriguez said sales have slowly been dropping as the weather has turned colder the past couple of weeks.
“We have several patio heaters and a fire pit, hopefully that will keep our patio a little busy,” he said. “We are counting on the public to continue ordering online for pick up and delivery.”
Rodriguez, like Abramson, is concerned about Boulder County implementing more stringent restrictions and the negative impact they could have on small businesses forced to further limit the size of gatherings and the capacity at which they can operate.
Even before stricter health guidelines were announced, winter operations posed their challenges.
Not the same as summer
In July, Longmont City Council agreed to close a lane of in each direction of travel on Main Street for the Longmont Downtown Development Authority's Bigger Hearts, Stronger Streets initiative that expanded outdoor space in an effort to boost downtown businesses hit by COVID. Most of the barricades came down last month, with the few that remained removed on Monday.
But taking advantage of the outdoors gets trickier in winter and the city is already hearing from businesses seeking solutions.
Assistant City Manager Joni Marsh said Longmont recently has been looking at proposals from restaurants all over town that are looking to better leverage outdoor space.
“We’re operating in a time where normal courses of action are not really in place. I think we are trying to be flexible and nimble, as is everyone right now,” she said.
Some businesses have requested liquor license changes while others are seeking to expand their physical space onto sidewalks or private property.
The process for reviewing such proposals involves coordination of multiple city departments, with Planning and Development Services and Building taking the lead. Requests for permits, including those seeking to erect tents or other structures to add more outdoor space, also are being coordinated with the fire marshall to ensure compliance with fire and building codes as well as state health guidelines.
“Everyone has kind of been involved in how can we help, that’s really how we are looking at this,” Marsh said.
Earlier in the year, the City Clerk’s Office set up an application to facilitate liquor license changes and business expansions. Eighteen businesses so far have applied and received some form of permit for expansions, including 13 in the downtown area, three at Village at the Peaks and two in other locations. Amy Hennion, senior fire code inspector, said the city has not issued any tent permits for restaurants wanting outdoor seating.
Michelle Sebestyen, licensing coordinator at the City’s Clerk Office, said 22 existing retail liquor licensees have applied for and obtained COVID-related temporary modification of premises permits.
Fire Marshal Michele Goldman said while the fire department has not come up with an approval process that is set in stone, it has been looking at temporary requests on a case-by-case basis.
“We’re kind of starting to think outside of the box. We’re looking at those igloo-type things or small pods, depending on how long they are up,” she said. “If people have creative solutions and if they want to keep trying things out, please reach out, and we can work with them as best we can. They are all doing their best to try to make it work and so will we.”
Stepping up to help
On Nov. 1, the Colorado Restaurant Association launched the winter outdoor grants program through which restaurants can apply for grants of up to $10,000 to help “winterize patio space for continued outdoor dining,” including projects that were completed after Aug. 1, are in progress, or are planned for the winter, according to a news release. The first round of the application will close Nov. 13 and funds will be disbursed by Nov. 23.
Locally, support organizations also are brainstorming ways to boost businesses over the winter.
The Longmont Downtown Development Authority is open to ideas, said Executive Director Kimberlee McKee.
“We had talked about do we want to tent up the alleys, do we want to put tents in parking spaces. At that point no one was ready to initiate this effort, but if there is a reduction in seating or a reduction in capacity and folks are willing to revisit that, we would be very willing to figure out creative options,” she said.
The LDDA has begun discussing a winter passport program, with a potential new push looking to provide discounts and promotions through January and February in hopes of bringing people back to businesses at the beginning of 2021, McKee said.
“The community has counted on them to be there so we are hoping the community can find great ways to support them through these hard times,” she said.
The LDDA will hold a virtual meeting on ways to support businesses this winter months from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Tuesday. All retailers and restaurants are invited to attend and can sign up by RSVPing via email to Colin Argys.
The Longmont Chamber also has been working on initiatives to promote local restaurants. As part of Longmont Restaurant Week in September, people who spent certain amounts unlocked a code to be used at a different restaurant this winter, said Scott Cook, Longmont Chamber executive director.
“(We are) encouraging people to go back, because we do expect (business) to be lower for restaurants. We want to get them in the door, purchasing takeout, it’s all income and revenue for these businesses,” he said.
Cook also said the Chamber is looking to do another large push for the Takeout Takeover campaign, an initiative launched in the spring to support local restaurants.
“I think people like the experience of going out and dining out but if we want to have these restaurants, if we want to have the Longmont food scene when this is all over, it’s important to go out and support them right now,” he said. “It’s not quite as fun maybe but it’s a necessary investment.”
Berenice García-Tellez, secretary of the Latino Chamber of Commerce board of directors and Longmont economic sustainability specialist, said for Latino businesses a major setback to adapting to COVID restrictions is the lack of an online presence.
“There is a fundamental problem (with these businesses)... many don’t have a website or social media,” she said, adding that about 12% of Latino businesses to which the Latino Chamber and the city’s economic sustainability team have reached out said online presence is a major concern and 10% are concerned about the coming colder weather.
“(The Latino Chamber is) building strategies for them to be online and start promoting their business,” she said. “To be on DoorDash, GrubHub is expensive for some. We are supporting Hispanic entrepreneurs who are creating apps that are more accessible.”
Stuckey, meanwhile, is stressing just how dire an impact the loss of local restaurants can have.
“Our industry is in the fabric of every community,” he said. “(Restaurants are) the cultural fabric that people can rally around. The sum of the parts is so much greater when restaurants are healthy. It’s not one and one equals two, it’s one and one equals 12.”
