Name: Blumenthal predicts much larger stimulus package to come as West Hartford restaurant owners tell government leaders: Help! Now
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Blumenthal predicts much larger stimulus package to come as West Hartford restaurant owners tell government leaders: Help! Now

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AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantJan 08, 2021 at 3:23 pmChip Kohn knows how brutally the pandemic has hurt his industry: His three West Hartford restaurants lost about $400,000 last year, and are in the midst of a frighteningly slow winter.“We’re down 47% in sales. On March 1 we had 85 employees, now it’s 25 — and frankly, I don’t have enough business for the 25,” Kohn told lawmakers Friday.AdvertisementTiffany Nguyen, owner of Pho135 in West Hartford as well as a small insurance agency, offered a similar story.“For the past seven months I’ve had to get money from my other business to subsidize my restaurant. It’s putting both my businesses in jeopardy,” Nguyen said. “I’m kind of scared both my businesses will go down the ditch together.”AdvertisementKohn, Nguyen and fellow restaurateur John Paindiris brought their concerns to a virtual roundtable hosted by the town and the local Chamber of Commerce.With four state legislators, Mayor Shari Cantor and both of Connecticut’s senators listening, they pleaded for larger and faster financial aid, better distribution of the coronavirus vaccine and help in winning customers back to inside dining.“I’ve never been this nervous and scared about the future. Revenue is down as much as 60%, and recently our takeout fell off again — it’s less than what it was in April,” said Paindiris, owner of Effie’s Place Family Restaurant.The financial pain reaches far beyond owners: The United States lost 2.5 million restaurant and bar jobs last year, including nearly 400,000 in December alone, the National Restaurant Industry Association reported Friday.Kohn, who owns the Rockledge Grille, Beachland Tavern and Beachland Smoke, said it has been heartbreaking to have to lay off staffers at a time when there aren’t easy alternatives for them.“They can’t find other jobs, there’s nowhere else to go,” he said. “They have no resources to pay their bills.”Kohn called on Sen. Chris Murphy and Sen. Richard Blumenthal to work for legislation to forgive the Paycheck Protection Program loans from last summer as well as the new round coming up. Those loans were intended to keep employees on the payroll during a relatively short shutdown, but the length of the pandemic has been devastating, Kohn said.“If I didn’t take the disaster loan, I’d be out of business,” said Kohn, whose three restaurants got a combined $1 million. “Now I’m gong to be paying $4,874 (monthly) for the next 30 years of my life. That’s $58,000 every year — I’ll be 75 when I pay that off.”AdvertisementNguyen agreed, predicting it will take two years of strong sales just to get restaurants back to where they were at the start of the pandemic.“On top of that are all these loans — you’re looking at another mortgage payment,” she said.Blumenthal said part of the solution will be a much larger federal stimulus once the new Congress is seated.“We were fighting for a bigger package. We started with $2 trillion, it was whittled down,” he said. “We need another major, robust pandemic relief effort. The good news is that Joe Biden is going to do it.“We need aid to small business in a sufficient size to really help you get through this chasm. We thought it would be a gap, it turned into a chasm.”Murphy predicted the new Congress will pass a package with $2,000 payments rather than the $600 that Senate Republicans agreed to. That will help get Americans back to ordering from restaurants, he said.AdvertisementMurphy said he’s also ready to introduce legislation for full federal reimbursement to restaurants that provide food to the poor.He acknowledged that helping restaurants survive the winter is essential, and said West Hartford — home to 160 food establishments — is proof of that.DailyWe're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. &gt; “The West Hartford restaurant community is a regional asset. This is one of the most vibrant series of business districts in the Greater Hartford region — it drives economic growth for the Hartford metro region,” Murphy said.“This is one of the selling points for businesses that are thinking of locating in Connecticut. And it’s a place young people see as an asset when they’re thinking about coming to Connecticut for a job,” he said.Nguyen, Paindiris and Kohn also made a pitch for political leaders at all levels of government to reassure the public that indoor dining — when done with precautions — isn’t as dangerous as it’s portrayed.“If you come into restaurants that are doing things properly and if you stay with the people from your own pod, you have a very low chance of leaving with coronavirus,” Kohn said.AdvertisementKohn acknowledged that some Connecticut restaurant owners have violated safety rules, and conceded that their businesses should be fined and shut down. But he said under the state’s current curfew, he’ll have to close his restaurants before halftime of some of this weekend’s football games.“That’s not preventing COVID,” he said.Paindiris said restaurant workers should be moved up on the priority list for receiving the coronavirus vaccine, arguing that they are frontline workers much like supermarket employees. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantJan 08, 2021 at 3:23 pmChip Kohn knows how brutally the pandemic has hurt his industry: His three West Hartford restaurants lost about $400,000 last year, and are in the midst of a frighteningly slow winter.“We’re down 47% in sales. On March 1 we had 85 employees, now it’s 25 — and frankly, I don’t have enough business for the 25,” Kohn told lawmakers Friday.AdvertisementTiffany Nguyen, owner of Pho135 in West Hartford as well as a small insurance agency, offered a similar story.“For the past seven months I’ve had to get money from my other business to...

Blumenthal predicts much larger stimulus package to come as West Hartford restaurant owners tell government leaders: Help! Now

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