Southland Restaurant Owner Says No Relief, No Rent

LOS ANGELES, CA — Andrea Borgen Abdallah, owner of Barcito in downtown Los Angeles, says it's time for restaurant owners to stop paying rent during the coronavirus pandemic.

Borgen Abdallah announced a campaign this week called No Relief, No Rent, calling on leaders to help support local businesses with funding.

The hospitality industry has taken hard financial hits during the pandemic, and as local businesses come up with creative responses to the challenging times, Borgen Abdallah said they are starting to run out of options.

“I just could not sit on my hands anymore,” Borgen Abdallah told Patch. “I think at the end of the day, it’s just desperation. Restaurants have been totally hung out to dry by our officials, and we’ve been given so few opportunities to make change."

Rent is still due. And as outdoor dining areas remain closed during the temporary ban on restaurant dining in Los Angeles County, it has left business owners confused, she said.

"To a certain extent, we’d been convinced that was the long-term strategy for our survival," Borgen Abdallah said. "We had been encouraged to spend thousands of dollars on patio equipment, PPE, so I think it’s hard to parse these things out."

For many restaurants and hospitality groups, shifting spaces to be mainly outdoors was not only costly but also considered a final resort to help stay open.

"You’re talking to a population of people who have nothing left to lose, and they’re terrified," Borgen Abdallah said.

"PPP helped a little bit, but PPP was developed with the expectation that this would all be over by summer," Borgen Abdallah said, describing the forgivable loan program launched by Congress.

But the pandemic isn't over — it's now December. And businesses need federal funding, she said.

"The California Legislature has been on recess since August," she said. “The next few weeks and months are really scary-looking.”

For Borgen Abdallah, her restaurant opted not to reopen as an outdoor dining location but instead shifted to a bodega-style business, with a focus on to-go and pickup orders, including beer, wine and special quarantine-themed kits centered on baking bread and unique cocktails.

"I’m totally sympathetic and empathetic," she said. "We never reopened outdoor dining because I saw this coming."

"For us as a small business, I did not think that we would be able to make all of those expenditures to make outdoor dining feasible if it was going to get taken away," Borgen Abdallah said. "It would have been a nail in the coffin for us."

A lot of companies and restaurants are now in that position.

"They have to lay off all their staff during the holidays," she said. "It’s really heart-wrenching."

So far, the response to the rent strike campaign is mixed. She launched an Instagram page and wrote an op-ed for Life & Thyme describing why relief for restaurants and local businesses is so crucial, and what the city could lose.

"It’s definitely a varied response," she said. "I’m not necessarily trying to convince an entire city or entire county to pay rent. I’m hoping that they were withholding rent. And a lot of folks have taken that strategy."

Like many business owners in Los Angeles County, Borgen Abdallah has to pay rent on space that is no longer occupied by diners or staff.

Paying rent for a space you no longer use is not sustainable in a pandemic, she added. About 20 other LA businesses agree and have joined the rent strike.

"We just don’t have the money to do it anymore, and it’s just impossible to pivot your way out of thousands of square feet of retail that you’re not allowed to use," Borgen Abdallah said. She has been withholding rent since April and has mostly reached a stalemate with her landlord.

"I'm hoping to formalize a call to action by the end of the month, at which point we can solicit our property owners' support in calling for relief," Borgen Abdallah said.

This also puts some of the city's important cultural landmarks in flux in a city known for having tasty and diverse food, she added.

"I think that when you think about Los Angeles, one of the first things you think about is how culturally diverse it is," Borgen Abdallah said. "Restaurants are a prime example of that. And so many of those places that we consider unique or special are the ones that are danger of closing."

The future of food looks, well, less like LA.

"It is an increasingly corporate future we’re looking at," she said. "And it’s not that I don’t think banks, fast-food and Starbucks should exist."

There has to be a mix, she said. Until then, business owners need help to get back on their feet.

"To a certain extent, I think we were fed this story that if we did everything that we could to make things as safe as possible, then we could kind of reopen, and that was just never true," Borgen Abdallah said. "It was kind of this pass-fail, group project, and we have failed miserably."

Restaurant owners are facing difficult decisions in the coming weeks, she said. It puts employees in a tough spot — and for Borgen Abdallah, she didn't want to lay people off. She had already faced that in March, with the early days of the pandemic turning her business upside down.

"That kind of guided my decision to not reopen as well," she said. "I know how painful it is."

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a program Monday to help food service workers.

A one-time $800 stipend will be provided to 4,000 food service employees living in Los Angeles who can demonstrate economic hardship due to job loss or at least a 50 percent reduction in income.

Front- or back-of-the-house employees at restaurants, food stands, mobile food units and push carts, and breweries, wineries and bars that serve food on the premises are eligible aid under Secure Emergency Relief for Vulnerable Employees, or SERVE. Recipients with confirmed eligibility will be selected and chosen from a randomized list. Applications will open Monday at 9 a.m. and close at midnight Dec. 11.

The program will be funded through the nonprofit, Mayor's Fund for Los Angeles, Garcetti said.

It's a good start, but not quite enough, Borgen Abdallah said.

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