CT Restaurant Workers Plan Protest At Governor's Residence

CONNECTICUT — According to the Connecticut Restaurant Association, more than 600 restaurants, caterers and private event venues have already closed over the past eight months, and more will follow soon.

On Monday, employees from the state's struggling eatery industry plan to converge on the residence of Gov. Ned Lamont to make a noisy case for more relief.

Organizer Dustin Amore, said he was prompted to action after hearing Dr. Manisha Juthani speak as Lamont's guest during a news conference Monday. She was one of a number of Yale-affiliated doctors who signed sent an open letter to the governor urging him to take stronger measures to contain the coronavirus, including closing restaurants' dining rooms.

Juthani "struck some fear into people with her anecdotal references to restaurants and dining out," Amore said, and so he "felt compelled to try and organize people."

Amore, a 12-year restaurant veteran, is currently the head bartender at Conspiracy in Middletown, which he described as a "higher-end craft cocktail bar." He quoted industry predictions which forecast that in the next three weeks, 10,000 restaurants nationally may be closing their doors.

"So we're trying to voice the need for relief."

Amore envisions the aid coming in the form of relief similar to what restaurants received from the federal government by way of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, in the spring.

"The CARES Act gave restaurants $5,000 dollars for whoever was able to get it," Amore told Patch. "And while that was very generous, it barely covered a months' rent for most places, if it covered it at all."

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Restaurants are a "very hard game to play," according to Amore. Retail shops have been able to switch to online ordering, he said, but when a restaurant pivots from full-service indoors to takeout only, jobs are inevitably cut.

Long-term, "there are fewer hands in the kitchen, and servers in the dining room," Amore said, "due to the razor-thin margins that we already attempt to sustain ourselves with, while still giving our guests fair pricing and covering overhead and wages."

Short-term, new restrictions come with out-of-pocket costs: "Every time we have had to pivot, it seems we end up losing more out of it," Amore said. "And that pivot also requires an investment. From having to buy small takeout boxes or changing menus to be 'full takeout ready,' only to have our capacity limits reduced."

Amore said that the bar and restaurant industry provides robust employment and tax revenues, and that seems lost on the governor.

Neighboring states "have done much more for their service industries," Amore said.

Lamont may have had an epiphany. He said Wednesday the state is looking to offer aid to the industry. The Republican-American is reporting that the assistance will be a limited stopgap measure until or unless additional federal aid becomes available. No further details have been made available.

The original goal for the protest, set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, was to rally about a hundred people. The Facebook event has 133 positive responses, with over 400 "interested" as of Thursday morning.

"I expect us to have quite a voice on Monday," Amore said.