So, there was this one day back in March when these two men told restaurant owners and their employees to lock the doors to dine-in customers. Takeout. That was it. For weeks on end. And most restaurants lost at least 70 percent of their business but likely even more.
It literally has been week-to-week for the locally owned eateries, and the chains have encountered the same restrictions ordered by those two men, W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice and Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine. On Tuesday, Dewine mandated a three-week, 10 p.m. curfew for retail businesses and bars that begins on Thursday, and later today Justice will brief West Virginians during a video stream.
You may not be concerned because what the governor may order won’t impact your employment, but every single person connected to food service will be nervous and all ears. Will Justice, once again, follow Dewine? Will he take it a step further and shutdown bars again?
Food service is not an easy industry, and anyone who owns, has owned, or has been employed at a restaurant knows all about the side work, the “stiffed-me” customers (it happens more often than you think), the nasty guy and the bratty kids, and the affects a few rain drops or snowflakes can have on a dinner service. It’s uneasy most of the time to depend on waiting tables these days, but when it’s the gig ya got, it’s a job.
Until it’s taken away.
That is why it is important for residents to participate, if possible, during today’s “Support Your Local Restaurants Day” event that was created by the chambers of commerce in Marshall County, Wheeling, and St. Clairsville. Those organizations are promoting the restaurants that are chamber members, but they all need our help because the past nine months for these eatery owners have involved getting over this hump and that hump and one-after-another hump, and the current uncertainty is yet another.
One day’s worth of sales isn’t going to save this torturous fiscal year, but it’s still one day of revenue that will pay some bills.
