By Megan Brock
Sweeping public policy often has narrow, individual consequences. Restaurant owner Yanni Lambros understands this well.
He is the owner of the Koffee Korner, a breakfast and lunch spot in Lansdale, PA, known for its huge portions and small town charm.
Like many restaurant owners, he has faced the difficulty of trying to maintain a sustainable business amidst ever changing government restrictions.
“It’s been pretty hectic. At first (in March) I tried to do what I perceived to be the right thing and I did close. But I didn’t want to sit still and waste food, so I donated a lot of food donations to seniors and medical workers. I donated between 250 to 300 meals in the first couple of months. It felt good to help them out and it was lifting people’s spirits. I donated as much as I could before I reopened for take out,” said Yanni.
Yanni isn’t alone. In March 2020, when asked to temporarily close their doors, thousands of altruistic restaurants owners found a silver lining by making donations to food banks, medical workers, and the elderly.
But altruism does not pay the bills.
On December 2nd, 2020, the National Restaurant Association released a sobering survey on the state of the restaurant industry, making the following estimations:
• As of December 1, at least 17% of all eating and drinking places – or more than 110,000 establishments – are completely closed and not open for business in any capacity.
• On average, permanently closed restaurants had been in business for 16 years. 16% of these shuttered restaurants had been open for at least 30 years.
• Before they closed for good, these restaurants employed an average of 32 people. 17% of these restaurants employed at least 50 people before they closed.
The brutal sacrifices demanded of the restaurant industry might be sufferable if they had a real-world impact on the trajectory of COVID-19. But the data shows otherwise. On December 11th, 2020, the state of New York released contact tracing data which showed only 1.43% of COVID-19 exposures came from restaurants and bars compared to 73.84% that came from household and social gatherings.
For a mitigation effort to have an impact on the overall disease trajectory, it would need to decrease transmission by at least 20%.
Less than 24 hours before the New York data was made public, Governor Tom Wolf announced a three-week suspension of all indoor dining at all Pennsylvania restaurants (which also included entertainment venues, gyms, and all school extracurricular activities) from December 12th through January 4th.
As expected, the suspension had no impact on decreasing disease trajectory.
In fact, on January 10th, 2020, the Bucks County Government reported, “New COVID cases were up…14% statewide, likely the result of holiday travel and gatherings.”
While the suspension did not impact the trajectory of COVID-19, it heavily impacted hard-working Pennsylvanians in the restaurant industry.
Yanni had to make the difficult choice between closing and denying his employees an income or staying open and facing fines and public backlash. Yanni chose to stay open.
“I didn’t want to give up on my business, I didn’t want to give up on my employees because they need somewhere to work. If they aren’t working here, they won’t be able to make it, and no one cares,” Yanni said.
Yanni remains optimistic that we can find a way forward that both protects businesses and the health of the vulnerable.
“I think people need to try to really think about the situation as a whole and take into consideration the circumstances that a lot of people are going through. The virus is real but it is not the bogey man around the corner. We should not all have to pretend we are sick at all times. We should not label someone as essential or non-essential and destroy their life over that label. People need to be a little more peaceful with each other. Maybe we can meet in the middle and we can all work it out,” said Yanni.
