The Women Of The Restaurant Industry Speak Out About Their Pandemic Experience

Few businesses were impacted by the pandemic as much as independent restaurants. Overnight, restaurant owners had to transition from sit-down dining to takeout, from serving drinks and conversation over a bar to offering cocktails to-go. Millions of restaurant workers were suddenly out of a job. Paper menus were replaced with QR codes. Customers went from small chat with baristas to venmo donations and buying gift certificates to feel a semblance of connection to their beloved local spots. I spoke to five women from across the country, each who found themself at a different level of owning, operating, or about to open restaurants or bars just as the pandemic hit. They shared their reflections on all the unexpected challenges they encountered over the past year and their hope for the future of the restaurant industry as people begin dining out in droves.

There was so much to look forward to at the beginning of March 2020. 

Kerry Fitzmaurice of Pure Grit BBQ, a plant-based BBQ company, was excited to finally open her first fast casual restaurant in New York City.  

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“I was in the midst of opening my first restaurant next to Shake Shack at Hudson Yards,” shared Food Network Star’s Palak Patel. “Finding a space, raising money, and coming up with a concept took years of my life. We were finally scheduled to open in 2020.”

Michelle Gauthier of Mulberry & Vine was looking to expand. “Business was good, I had a great team and we were about to open a sixth location. We were at a point where investors were reaching out frequently. Unfortunately, my core customer is the office worker and all of my locations are in New York. The New York office worker basically became non-existent during Covid so that ended the conversation pretty quickly.”

I asked each restaurant owner to tell me about that first moment of panic when the industry had to essentially shut down or rapidly switch to takeout and delivery.

“I remember at the very onset of the pandemic, going from each of our restaurants to thank people and say goodbye, and I basically realized with a very empty, hollow feeling, that I really didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” reminisced Lisa Dahl, chef and owner of Dahl Restaurant Group in Sedona. “At that time, as I was saying goodbye, I realized that some weren’t going to come back for various reasons. Many were going to perhaps use this departure as a regrouping of their own priorities, and there was just an ugly feeling of unknowing and trepidation that is still with me. That still hasn’t quite been resolved.”

“Millions of people lost their jobs simultaneously, and no one was ready to ramp up and get them unemployment as fast as they needed,” Nicole Stipp of Louisville’s Trouble Bar remembered. Her partner, Kaitlyn Soligan, added, “There were line cooks, servers, undocumented workers, people who weren’t full time employees who weren’t protected. In Louisville, we passed the Lee initiative, which put money into restaurants so that they could feed people in the industry who were suddenly out of work.” 

Stipp continued, “We cleared out most of our savings to pay our March 2020 tax bill. It was due about a week after every city, state, and business had closed indefinitely. It was too early for any relief, but the IRS was not going to extend the deadline. So we paid it and held our breath.”

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“Our collective identity was in a virtual downfall. When Andy Ricker closed Pok Pok we were all like oh f*ck. If he can’t stay open what chance do the rest of us have?” remembered Patel. “I took a one-way flight to Atlanta to be near family, thinking the pandemic would be over in a month. As the weeks went by and New York became the epicenter, I knew my life was about to change forever.”

“I was completely freaked out and in shock the first couple of weeks,” shared Gauthier, candidly. “I also thought we would reopen any day so I stayed in work mode, ready to get back to it on a moment’s notice.  When I realized that wasn’t the case, and I needed to lay off the majority of my staff, I was just so sick about it. I’m not much of a crier but I cried that day.”

“I had worked so hard on the brand, testing the menu, and built so much momentum that I did not want to put it on pause,” said Fitzmaurice. “So I quickly hustled and decided to launch a website that celebrated plant-based BBQ and delivered items so people could BBQ from home. I quickly prepared dishes and shot them for the website. The hardest part was formulating the sauces and rub for consumers and finding a bottler that would do small batches. But I did and we started selling them online.”

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For these restaurant owners, there was a period of self-reflection, followed by a turning point. 

“I lost my identity after living in New York for 10 years,” said Patel. “I was afraid of being looked at as a failure. Leaving the city to me felt like failing but I knew that was just my ego. I had to step into the new change in the world and in me. I spent months meditating, working on myself, reimagining a new life, and then one day I came across this new restaurant space in a food hall.”

“We had just flipped our menu and bought new juices, syrups, flavors, all this stuff,” shared Soligian. “And then we weren’t allowed to sell liquor. So we had two weeks to figure out what to do with all this before it goes bad. So we said, let’s just sell it. They can’t stop us from selling juice. So we actually created a real lemonade stand. We gave people these cute little recipe cards and we put jokes in them because, well, we were tired and had no idea how we were going to survive. The first two or three lemonade stands were so successful that I was like, we might just be able to pay one month of bills from this. A local print shop made us prints that said, ‘When life hands you lemons, make trouble.’” 

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“In mid-spring a few things happened. Aid started flowing to businesses and aid started flowing to humans so they could afford some to-go cocktails,” explained Stipp. “Kentucky was conservative with their reopening plans, but we were able to have folks on our patio, small groups in the building and were able to start bringing in a bit of revenue. We essentially just decided to ride the wave for as long as we could make our grants support us. Just a few weeks ago we were approved for the Restaurant Relief Fund program. When that money showed up in our account, it was probably the first time we’d taken a real, deep breath since March 2020.” 

“I was most afraid of the snowball effect of not having steady, consistent teams. When you have such a large footprint in your community, like we do, that is always one of the biggest hurdles you can face,” said Dahl. “We’ve really had to start over and rebuild that stable team, and we haven’t quite returned to normal yet. Returning to in-person dining was a welcome shift, but it still feels like we’re in the maze most days. We have to remain flexible, because we never know when another wave or changes in the rules might come again.” 

There were also a few surprises.

“It’s shocking to say it, but we actually loved delivery & pick-up grocery services,” said Stipp. “I have been pretty surprised by how generally kind and great people have been to our staff. That’s not 100% across the board, but there are many more people being kind, tipping well and complying with all the rules than not.”

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Gauthier added, “What surprised me was how unbelievable the outdoor structures turned out. They’re awesome!  It really shows how much ingenuity and grit the restaurant industry has.” 

“You have to burn things down to build back up again,” shared Patel. “The forced reset caused by the pandemic was the best thing that happened to me. I never realized how many false narratives I told myself. I never stopped to consider, is this the right city, is this the right time? The ego in me would never allow myself to answer that question. That four month break gave me the eyes to see my life for what it was.” 

Patel eventually put down roots in her hometown of Atlanta. She bought a house and is about to open Dash and Chutney, a vegan Indian street food stand at Chattahoochee Food Works at the end of July.  

As we look ahead to a time where restaurants across the country are experiencing something akin to a grand reopening, these restaurateurs are optimistic about where things are heading for their industry. 

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“It seems like everyone turned to direct-to-consumer in 2020 as a way to shore up the balance sheet and meet consumers where they were, at home,” says Fitzmaurice. “As we open up, I think that people will be anxious to sit and enjoy a meal, an experience. Gather around the table and talk and laugh and live.”

“It’s all about baby steps,” cautions Dahl. “Long-term plans are still hard for me to grasp, personally, but baby steps give me almost an oasis to look forward to.”

“While folks really invested in those at-home bartending skills, I’m pretty sure they are extremely ready to drink a drink made by someone else, while sitting in a place that isn’t their home,” predicts Stipp. “I’m hopeful that all this renewed love for eating and drinking away from the couch will remind people to go to more happy hours, hug more necks of their family and friends, demand rest at every turn and tip their bartender as much as possible!”

“As the people in the industry change, the industry is also bound for change,” says Patel. “Whether it’s less restaurants, fair wages, different ways to dine out or people leaving the industry, it’s all happening.”

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