Weathering virus-induced closures, concern for employees order of day for Spokane-area restaurants

A chef at two Spokane eateries, Matthew Vivian normally works up to 80 hours a week, but that’s halted now with temporary layoffs from both jobs.

It’s the same for many hourly workers in the state of Washington because of current restrictions for restaurants and other facilities aimed at slowing the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, Vivian went to Chaps restaurant, where owner Celeste Shaw had asked all her laid-off employees to come in when they could with bags to take home fresh food in storage at the eatery, which is closed for now. Vivian, 30, was a chef at both Chaps and Wandering Table.

Vivian said he strongly agrees it’s best for people to avoid public gatherings now to slow the virus spread, but he’s also concerned about how restaurants – and workers – will recover. It’s difficult for him currently to pick up extra jobs at companies that have ramped up hiring, such as Albertsons and Amazon, he said.

“Realistically, you can’t ask someone who has spent a decade in an industry to go out and get a different job right away, especially when there are hundreds of people like me in the industry who need the work, too,” said Vivian, whose wife so far has kept shifts in her part-time hotel work. They have three children, ages 4, 15 and 18.

“We live paycheck to paycheck. Our savings are depleted every two months for this or that; that’s expected for the storm you could weather. I think for most of us, we were ready for a smaller storm.”

Others in the local hospitality industry say they agree with the need to restrict gatherings, but it’s been damage control since Gov. Jay Inslee’s restrictions on Sunday, which closed bars and indoor service at restaurants across the state. Establishments still can offer takeout and delivery orders.

Shaw said she couldn’t sleep on Sunday night thinking about the impact on employees. She said two outlets she owns couldn’t adjust to a takeout model, so that meant closing Chaps and the Paper and Cup coffee kiosk in Kendall Yards, affecting about 32 workers.

“I’m so worried about my kids,” Shaw said. “We just opened our own freezers, and I told them that they can take anything they want. I feel very responsible for them.”

Some restaurants, breweries and coffee shops were able to scale down quickly and adapt, but that has still required significant employee cuts, said Kevin Finch, founder of the Spokane-based Big Table nonprofit that uses a referral system to offer support to restaurant and hospitality workers in crisis situations.

“Most of the independents are not set up for a lot of takeouts,” Finch said. “A few people were able to pivot and still keep money coming in. Both for owners and employees, they’ve kind of stepped off a financial cliff. Most restaurants are now down to a skeleton crew.”

The nonprofit also has Seattle and San Diego offices, so Big Table’s staff witnessed the first blows in Seattle last week. The group only takes referral requests from managers, owners or other employees and customers submitting an urgent need for a hospitality worker they know. It might be to help to pay rent or other bills.

“We’re already swamped with referrals, and it’s just going to get worse,” Finch said.

Spokane chef Adam Hegsted, owner of Eat Good Group with its several local restaurants, expects worse before better.

“It’s been rough,” he said. “We have had to lay off 130 people pretty much immediately. We are hoping that the shutdown only lasts two weeks, but I am guessing there will be a mandated federal shutdown coming very shortly of four to eight weeks. We hope that this comes soon so we can get the quarantine in place and get back to business as soon as possible.”

He said the Eat Good Group’s catering has had $40,000 worth of cancellations. All its restaurants are currently doing takeout and delivery.

“We have kept as many staff on as we could, but that is still not a lot. It’s mostly just our salary employees. Even with takeout and delivery available, it is about 10% to 20% of our normal sales, and that does not sustain much staff or our business in general.

“We already live on incredibly tight margins, and this will eat those up very quickly.”

Although sanitation and health standards were rigid before, they are moreso now, Hegsted added. “There is no direct hand contact with any food or beverages, and every surface is to be sanitized every 30 minutes. This is an extremely tough time, and we are just hoping to get through this as quick as possible, get our people back to work and hopefully be a better operating business afterward.”

At Chaps, Shaw is working with Spokane Valley-based Zome Design to create T-shirts and aprons with the words “Food is Love” to benefit restaurant workers. The unisex baseball tee design is offered at $30 and the apron for $35 at Chapsgirl.com, with proceeds directed to Big Table. Zome expects to prep the first batch of apparel on Friday.

Shaw had used the “Food is Love” design before and remembered it when she couldn’t sleep on Sunday night.

“I thought, I’m going to print that shirt and sell it, with funds to go to restaurant employees who need extra help. I put it on Instagram, and I started getting messages from Norway and Europe, from Seattle. It went crazy.”

By early this week, she’d contacted Zome. Then she got an unexpected message from Jack Heath, president and chief operating officer at Washington Trust Bank. “He called me and said, ‘What do you need? I’ll have a check for you today.’ There he was, just reaching out.”

Juli Norris, owner of Downriver Grill in northwest Spokane, said the eatery has decided to operate with a takeout menu and limited employees, for now.

“We decided to stay open for takeout for as long as we can,” she said. “We are going to take it on a day-by-day basis to see if it makes sense to stay open. The reason we’re doing that is I want to support my employees for as long as possible.”

But now the eatery is down to eight to 10 employees, while about 35 workers will seek temporary, standby unemployment benefits or partial unemployment.

“I’m trying to keep it open for those who want to be here,” Norris said. “Because of the virus situations, some of them say they don’t have anyone to watch kids or they have parents who are elderly who need help. There are a lot of people who have voluntarily taken a layoff.

“Our focus is definitely on our employees and also on our community. Because we’re in a neighborhood, if someone wants to walk a bit and get some food, we’re definitely being very careful with sanitizing, wearing gloves and doing the appropriate social distances to make sure everyone is safe.”

Norris also is operations director for two other eateries, the Flying Goat and Republic Pi, which she said also are staying open with takeout and reduced staff.