While the rest of the country mercurially responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, front-of-house employees in the hospitality industry are already feeling its force. They’ve been some of the first to experience the economic fallout of restaurant, bar, and taproom closures, and they’ve had to assess risks to their personal safety inherent in their public-facing roles.
Each shift—until those shifts stop coming—can feel like a balancing act between some financial security, and the wellbeing of themselves and the public.
Despite the inevitable lost wages, the brewpub staff at Chicago’s Old Irving Brewing had as early as last week suggested to management the brewpub close temporarily in response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus). That was days before Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered all restaurants and bars to close in-person dining until March 30. While the staff knew a closure meant an end to their paychecks, Old Irving co-founder Trevor Rose-Hamblin says employees still pushed for it.
“Hearing our staff’s concerns, we were already planning on closing our doors for a while. We thought it would be prudent for their safety and mental health,” Rose-Hamblin tells Good Beer Hunting. “They knew that if we were to stop service, it would be better for the greater good. They were not necessarily concerned for their own health but they knew the bigger picture.”
The brewpub announced it would close entirely through Tuesday of this week and will reopen Wednesday, March 18, for curbside food and beer pickup. Though brewing staff is still coming in, Rose-Hamblin says most front-of-house employees will not work for the foreseeable future. Old Irving will try to provide hours for as many employees as possible when it reopens for curbside pickup, but it won’t be possible to provide roles for all affected staff. Cellaring and administrative tasks still need to be done this week, but how many employees specifically will be needed is still an open question.
“We want to be open when it’s all over,” Rose-Hamblin says, noting that all current staff will be invited to come back whenever the brewpub resumes normal business. He’s been emailing employees updates on Old Irving’s situation, and where they can file for unemployment for financial assistance. He wants to provide insight into what’s to come, but acknowledges that’s not possible yet.
“We’ll do what we can as long as we can.”
The situation at Old Irving is emblematic of the rapidly-changing reality for employees of brewpubs, brewery taprooms, bars, and restaurants. As more states and counties restrict the number of patrons bars and restaurants can serve—or mandate they close entirely, as is the case of Illinois, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, Indiana, California, and Washington—front-of-house workers are some of the first to be cut from payroll.
The ones still employed find themselves in a uniquely precarious position: They’ll either lose out on wages and tips if they stay home sick, or, if they continue coming to work, they’ll interact with members of the public and fellow employees who could potentially carry the virus. Only 25% of all restaurant workers nationally are entitled to paid sick days, according to statistics from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. And among that 25%, barriers remain to making use of those sick days. Even for those who feel healthy, bartending and serving food feels fraught in the midst of a pandemic.
“Standing behind the bar on any given day, you’re talking with and interacting very physically with people even though you have the bar dividing you,” Bronwyn Vogler, a taproom member at Redemption Rock Brewing Company in Worcester, Massachusetts, tells GBH. “You’re taking their money, you’re handing them something, you’re taking their glass. It’s a lot to think about just in terms of what your responsibility is.”
Redemption Rock’s taproom was busy throughout the weekend, likely owing to early St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, but the taproom will be closed except for to-go beer and merchandise sales beginning this week. Vogler says the limited service means taproom staff’s hours were cut substantially.
“We’re going to do what we can do, and still get our beer out there, and still make people happy with our beer,” she says. “And we’re doing as much as we can to protect ourselves and our families, which is what we want other people to do. If you’re going to come out, that’s cool, come out, but we’re all supposed to be cautious and take care of ourselves.”
And that’s the tension. Given what feels like hourly changes in directions from city, state, and federal leadership, workers are in an unfortunate spot: encourage customers to socialize amid a pandemic, or face financial hardship as Americans self-isolate. That balancing act becomes personal, too: stay home and lose a crucial paycheck, or come to work and risk exposure to the virus from customers and coworkers. Anxiety compounds when there’s no precedent for what’s happening, and no end in sight to the pressure.
Owners at bars, restaurants, and taprooms that have had to close to the public have sought creative ways to keep staff working. Columbus, Ohio’s Wolf’s Ridge Brewing launched a temporary beer-delivery service staffed by its employees, who will be the sole recipients of each $3.99 delivery fee. Brooklyn, New York’s Beer Karma is offering to-go packaged beer only during limited hours, and is asking “hype breweries” who normally don’t distribute cans to do bars a favor and deliver specialty beers that could draw out some customers. Beer Karma owner Dan Lamonaca says Hill Farmstead has altered its policy to now allow New York City bars to provide growler fills of its sought-after beer.
In a follow-up email to retailers through Hill Farmstead's partner company, Grassroots Distribution said it is not, in fact, allowing growler sales of Hill Farmstead beer despite legal allowances to do so. Hill Farmstead is going so far as to collect kegs from retailers to prevent growler sales.
These are unorthodox steps. Most independent bars and restaurants haven’t had to make these types of decisions before, balancing public-health concerns against their responsibilities to their overall business and staff. Receiving little guidance beyond “minimize contact” and “wash hands,” many are left to decide between these conflicting priorities on their own.
In Chicago, Middle Brow Beer co-founder Pete Ternes says the brewpub will continue to offer employees a meal twice a day even as the brewpub remains closed to the public. Middle Brow has also shifted operations to create work for front-of-house staff during the closure, handling packaging and distribution of to-go beer and food.
Last week, Middle Brow launched a subscription service for its bread, pizza, and beer, offering weekly pickup or delivery on a quasi-CSA model. Customers who sign up for the weekly receive a combination of beer, bread, and pizza of their choosing; plans start at $7 (bread only) and cost up to $36 (beer, bread, and pizza). The brewpub has also begun selling to-go pizza-making kits featuring containers of dough, sauce, cheese, and toppings that customers can use to bake pizza at home. Those kits were specifically created as a way to keep staff on board, packaging and preparing the boxes. Middle Brow is also promoting its menu through delivery service Caviar.
“We’re trying to throw as many things like that out into the world,” says Ternes. “I don’t know that this is going to work but we’re talking to our local politicians to find ways to use our licensed kitchen to make food for the community, or to serve people who are hungry. That’s another way to get people working, provided the government can buy those meals. … The alderman was really interested so we’ll see where it goes.”
Efforts like this to keep employees’ paychecks coming are piecemeal, though, and not every brewery, bar, or restaurant has the infrastructure to launch such initiatives. Some breweries who are large enough may be able to pay staff during closures—Missoula, Montana’s KettleHouse Brewing, the second largest in the state, announced Monday it had closed its three taprooms and placed those employees on a paid leave program.
But with OpenTable restaurant bookings down as much as 70% year-over-year for certain mid-March dates in cities like New York and Boston, hospitality-industry employees are some of the first people to be economically devastated by the COVID-19 fallout. The United States Bartenders Guild has been promoting its Bartender Emergency Assistance Program, which is open to USBG members and non-members who meet certain criteria and can demonstrate they’ve suffered “a catastrophic event or emergency hardship.” Grants from the USBG are in the form of lump-sum payments, and the recipient must subsequently prove, with documentation, that the grant was used “in a manner consistent with the terms of the grant.” Due to overwhelming interest, though, the USBG’s website notes applicants may experience delays and difficulties submitting new applications.
Other companies have tried to coordinate relief efforts themselves. Establishments including Chicago beer bar and bottle shop Beermiscuous, San Francisco comedy and music venue Piano Fight, and Chicago hospitality group Footman Hospitality have created crowdfunding campaigns to help support their staff during closures. On its Gofundme page, Beermiscuous’ owners note that while they are exploring options for curbside pickup, the plan is that Beermiscuous will be closed indefinitely beginning Tuesday. The page says Beermiscuous has a staff of seven between its two locations.
Some owners are crowdfunding options. Chris Fuselier, owner of Denver's Blake Street Tavern, turned to Twitter to ask for help finding new jobs for 80 staff he was forced to lay off. "I worry so much about how they’re going to survive while our dining and bar is shut down for 8 weeks," he wrote.
Chicago hospitality company Leisure Activities partnered with workwear company Stock Manufacturing to design a shirt that reads “Support Chicago Hospitality Workers.” Available online, the shirt costs $25 and 100% of net proceeds will provide financial relief for hourly employees of Chicago restaurants and bars, including Birrieria Zaragoza, Elske, Hopewell Brewing’s taproom, Ludlow Liquors, and more.
Still, such efforts can only go so far in replacing a regular paycheck. As uncertainty continues to loom for front-of-house employees, some see this as a defining moment for the industry and an opportunity to bring about structural change.
Before she co-founded Denizens Brewing Company in Silver Springs, Maryland, Julie Verratti worked for the U.S. Small Business Association, giving her unique insight into what some of the most pressing needs will be for peers during this time. In recent days, she’s shared on Twitter the ways in which she’s advocated for the immediate needs of small businesses in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and has called on her state’s elected officials to do much more to bring them relief.
“I know that they can do more. This is why I’m being so vocal,” Veratti tells GBH.
She’s requested an immediate moratorium on all commercial debt, rent, and mortgage payments; assurances from Maryland’s governor that if a small business is required to furlough or temporarily lay off employees that the small business's long-term unemployment insurance rates don't go up in perpetuity; and an immediate action to make Maryland eligible for the SBA disaster loans across all counties and jurisdictions in the state. She’s also advocated for an immediate moratorium on individual citizens’ debt, mortgages, and rent payments.
Those immediate personal payments—rent, insurance, utilities, credit card bills—don’t vanish when a person’s job does. Ethan Edwards and his wife lost their family’s health insurance when his wife was laid off as a result of the closure of a Portland, Oregon bar where she worked due to COVID-19. (She’s asked not to be named.) Ethan is a general manager at Ben’s Bottle Shop in Vancouver, Washington, and doesn’t have insurance benefits through that job. Still, he’s employed at a time when some of his peers aren’t, and he believes this fallout among service-industry employees will be a turning point.
“This needs to be a moment for people in the industry, not even owners but the people who are keeping these places going with their hourly efforts to band together and unionize. I think it’s time for it,” Edwards says. “In my extra time off, I’m going to spend some time looking into how to do that. It’s time to make sure we’re getting something set aside as a cushion to protect ourselves.”
He says there’s been a lack of clarity and guidance from the highest levels of government, which only adds to the confusion and anxiety of workers losing their jobs.
“Trying to figure out what the government is doing and making available—it’s starting to feel like that’s going to be a part-time job.”
Words by Kate Bernot