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PHOTOGRAPH: ERIK RANKyxeat & drinkeat &drinkEDITED BY ERIC LEVINSettling for SurvivalAmid huge losses, restaurants adapt to takeout andbrace for a chastened new normal. by Eric Levin“it’s a madhouse every minute of theday,” said Al Santillo, pushing anotherpizza into his century-old brick oven.“I’m 63, and my buddies say, ‘retireand come play cards,’ but I feel neededhere.” The oven, 16 feet deep, is in thetiny house in Elizabeth where Santillo,the son of a baker, grew up. Since thepandemic began, he’s been putting in 15-hour days and has committed to donatingseven pies a day to the local hospitaland EMS squad “for the duration.”“I’ve been here 30 years,” he said,“and I’ve never been this busy.”With the restriction of restaurants totakeout and delivery in response to Covid-19,pizza—inexpensive, transportableand beloved—may be one of the fewrelative bright spots, at least for placeslike Santillo’s that were already takeoutdynamos. “Pizzerias,” said DomenicoBoccia, a salesman for Ferraro Foods inPiscataway and one of Santillo’s suppliers,“are surviving the best of anybody.”But if pizza is a bright spot, it bobs inWRAPAND RUNMeny Vaknin, chef/owner of Mishmish inMontclair, completes atake-out order and placesit with others for pick up.“I’ve got no time foranything else,” hesays.a sea of darkness. As of early May, whenthis issue went to press, “97 percent ofrestaurant operators in the state havelaid off or furloughed employees,” saidMarilou Halvorsen, executive directorof the New Jersey Restaurant andHospitality Association. This amountsto about 222,000 people out of work ina restaurant and hospitality labor forcethat was about 350,000 strong, she said.The National Restaurant Associationestimates there are 19,050 eating anddrinking places in the state.For owners, the decision to close temporarilyor soldier on was not easy. Shuttingdown meant not only loss of income,but giving away or throwing out preciousinventory while continuing to shoulderfixed costs such as rent, taxes, utilities.Staying open made sense only if themenu could be readily adapted to takeout—impracticalfor fine dining exemplarslike Restaurant Nicholas in RedBank or the Ryland Inn in WhitehouseStation. But restaurants run on passion.For many operators, staying open, orreopening after a brief closure—evenwith reduced staff, a reduced menu andreduced prices—was a bet worth making.“If we had kept closed,” said MenyVaknin, whose flagship, Mishmish, isone of three restaurants he owns inMontclair, the risk of losing customersas well as valued staff would haveincreased, making it “harder to comeback.” To boost revenue, a number ofplaces, including South + Pine in Morristown,Viaggio in Wayne, and all TurningPoint locations, began grocery items.To ease the pain, Congress createdthe Paycheck Protection Program tomake small-business loans thatwould be forgiven if at least 75percent of were applied to payroll.But the fine print imposedconditions that, for restaurants,were seen as hobbling. Chiefamong these was the requirementto spend all the moneywithin eight weeks, a span in whichnormal operations were impossible.Still, several respected New Jerseyrestaurateurs took the loans, includingVaknin, Dan Richer of Razza in JerseyCity, and Neilly Robinson of HeirloomKitchen in Old Bridge. “It’s given us theconfidence to operate with a full staff,”Robinson said. “It’s nothing to scoff at.”On April 22, the National RestaurantAssociation released a pamphlet,Covid-19 Reopening Guidelines, thatconfirmed a lot of speculation. In additionto heightened standards for sanitizingsurfaces and employee hygiene, itrecommended spacing tables at least sixfeet apart and placing partitions betweenthem. Suggestions included, “Consider areservations-only business model, ...trynot to allow guests to congregate in waitingareas or bar areas, ...[and] discontinueself-serve buffets and salad bars.”These restrictions will mean perhapsa 50 percent reduction in seatingcapacity and therefore revenue. It’squestionable whether small restaurantscan survive under those terms. Whetherpeople will flock to take those seatsalso remains to be seen. At some point,restaurants will again be allowed to seatpeople at tables. Whether people willreadily take those seats and accept closeproximity to others, even with partitionsand such, remains to be seen.JUNE 2020 NEW JERSEY MONTHLY 63
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