Che Fico owner talks about struggles restaurants are facing

an uptick in coronavirus cases is leading to more restrictions indoor dining will no longer be allowed at san francisco restaurants starting on saturday and this is just another blow to the already struggling restaurant industry tonight in cover conversations we talked to david nayfeld executive chef and co-owner of cafeco restaurant in cafico elementary both in san francisco and chef thank you so much for being here we know that the economic hit to the restaurant industry has been enormous how long can you and the others hang on well i think that answer is different for everyone the one thing to understand about this issue is it's very regional right uh we saw just you know a month ago that san francisco was doing so well that we were on our way to being uh open 50 dining and now we're getting to a place where it's been said that now we're closing all indoor dining all together right you're seeing in new york that got to a relatively good place with some indoor dining now they're planning on shutting down again the same with chicago and you're seeing uh you know it kind of change all over the country and so the answer for us personally you know if we don't get a federal bill passed uh like the restaurant act um you know i think that we probably have about uh four months until things start getting really dire and we have to make some extreme calls well that is not not long at all explain to viewers a little bit about what the restaurants act is and what it would do yeah the restaurants act is a 120 billion dollar federal act um and so there's one that was written in the house of representatives by congressman blumenauer and then another one that was written in the senate by senator roger wicker you have a democrat in the house and a republican in the senate it's very bipartisan you have people on both you know sides of the aisle which have endorsed it um you know both the speaker and a number of other prominent uh you know democrats and republicans have voiced the fact that they understand that restaurants in a very unique place we happen to employ more people than any other private industry in the entire country we also add more to the tax base and the gdp than any other industry and the fact is that we were hit the earliest by this and we're going to be affected the latest right because you're hearing all of these reports coming out saying that indoor dining is causing the spread and so us as chefs and operators we don't feel and i think that the majority of the public would agree with us that we don't feel like it's our position to have to choose between the public safety and the livelihood of our business you know if the government and the safety experts are telling us to shut down we're more than willing to do that but we need our government to step up for us and pass this bill which will allow us to open safely when we do reopen it will allow us to stay closed without having to shut down we can make our landlords whole and pay them we can pay our vendors and we can also pay some employees which is a huge deal in this time yeah so how frustrating is it for you david to know that this help is so desperately needed and yet lawmakers are aren't passing it yeah i would say it's definitely frustrating uh myself and a group of other highly motivated people at the irc the independent restaurant coalition have been working incredibly hard over the past eight months to uh to protect independent restaurants and at first that led to us trying to make changes which uh definitely helped with ppp and you know over the past eight months we've also been lobbying for this restaurant bill to uh to be passed it's very frustrating when you consider the fact that both republicans and democrats see the need for this you have a republican in the senate that wrote the bill you have a democrat in the house which wrote the bill you have uh overwhelming uh lee positive response to it yet uh the fact is i think we're caught in the middle of some you know partisan kind of chess match and the fact of the matter is also that we are not you know most small businesses are you know politically agnostic we're not political um you know uh pundits what we are is we're just hard working main street folks blue collar a lot of us are and you know we just need a little bit of a hand and you know during other times they've been willing to give uh help to the airline industry to the banking industry to the car uh you know to the car industry and now when main street and small business need help you know we really need our government to step up for us now yeah i think so many people would agree with you on that but we'll have to wait and see what happens with the restaurants act meantime wish you the best of luck i live here in san francisco i love the restaurant and i would love to see you stick around thanks so much david really appreciate it thank you so much it's good to see

Channel: KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco

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Id: nZWh01XBY-U

Length: 4min 49sec (289 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2020