Here & Now

Restaurants Weather the Pandemic

Frederica Freyberg:

The economic fallout of the pandemic has resulted in high unemployment and business closures, which in turn result in food insecurity and even homelessness. One industry hard hit is hospitality, like bars and restaurants. The Wisconsin Restaurant Association reports that 37% of owners surveyed say their establishment is unlikely to still be in business six months from now without additional relief from the federal government. And 46% say they may temporarily close until the COVID-19 pandemic passes. Tonight we visit with one restaurant owner in the Eau Claire area who’s seen business drop and worries for her employees. Joanne Palzkill owns three establishments with her family. She joins us now from one of them and thanks very much for being here.

Joanne Palzkill:

Thank you. My pleasure.

Frederica Freyberg:

So which restaurant are you joining us from?

Joanne Palzkill:

We are in Za 51. It’s our second restaurant in the Eau Claire area.

Frederica Freyberg:

So it’s one of three, as we said, establishments that you own. And I understand that you have had to lay off about half of your some 50 employees. What are they going through and what are you going through?

Joanne Palzkill:

It’s been a very, very difficult year. A year ago this month, we had about double the number of staff at both of our local restaurants. And for us it’s been a challenge. You know, especially with the limited dining capabilities. Now we’re going into winter. So we have outdoor patios at both of our establishments. They’ll no longer be an option. So it’s been challenging. And for our staff, they are really suffering, because we had to lay off a number of people, obviously, in the beginning. And even those who want to work and are willing to work have in many cases, if they have children, they are struggling with child care issues at home with the schools being in session, not in session. You know, they have to grapple with that. How can they leave and do that. And so it’s been a tough year.

Frederica Freyberg:

Absolutely. You tell us that you implemented distancing and are down to about 25% capacity. But how can restaurants stay afloat with that much of a reduction?

Joanne Palzkill:

It’s extremely difficult. In fact, if you have a larger — both of our restaurants are larger establishments. And so the whole 25%, even 50% becomes sort of a non-issue because once you do six feet of distancing and block them off, you’re really only able to accommodate so many people. So it’s been — that issue itself has created those limitations. And, you know, normally in December we would do banquets. That’s not happening. A lot of things are very different this year.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yet you believe you will weather this and come through and your businesses will be maintained?

Joanne Palzkill:

Well, in our case our oldest restaurant here in town has been here for – it will be going on 40 years. So I think we’re in a little bit better position than maybe both. It’s still been a struggle. We had some reserves. We’ve pretty gone through quite a bit of that. But we’re going to stay the course. And we are also working in our establishments for the most part. So when — even tonight my sister, who would be considered past retirement age by most people’s standards is going to be cooking in the kitchen at the other restaurant. She’ll be back there and she’s enjoying it. But she shouldn’t have to do that. But she will do it.

Frederica Freyberg:

Have you had staff get sick because of the COVID-19?

Joanne Palzkill:

We have had a few people. But we luckily — because we have so few staff working, it’s been very limited. We immediately had to limit our days of operation and hours of operation. So in our case the few we’ve had that have tested positive, we’ve been I guess you would say fortunate that they weren’t working closely with co-workers when we found out they were exposed, so we were able to keep them quarantined and safely roll out the rest of the time that they had to be away.

Frederica Freyberg:

Were you able to get some relief from the last federal loan forgiveness program or other government aid and would you like some coming up in another package?

Joanne Palzkill:

Well, I do think that if — with this current state right now if we don’t see another package, there will be probably — you know, as you stated in your original statistics, about 37% will probably not be open. This latest round did not benefit us particularly because it was for restaurants that were over a million, a million and over, as far as the local or the state offering. It’s really going to be important that restaurants see more aid coming.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah. Targeted aid, yeah, to a hard-hit industry. Joanne Palzkill, we thank you very much and we wish you luck and we hear your restaurants are great. So thank you.

Joanne Palzkill:

Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a good evening.

Frederica Freyberg:

You too.