Weathering the Blizzard

Dear Pros,

Erika here, the new Food & Wine restaurant editor. I've been swallowing vitamin D pills and staring glumly out of my back window in Boston, watching the lone tree in our tiny backyard weep under the weight of pounds of wet, gloppy snow. Friends in warmer parts of the country texted to check in this week: Did you lose power? Did you get enough groceries? (No and no.)

This has been one heck of a winter. My feed over the past month has been a steady stream of restaurants posting soul-crushing updates in the aftermath of one snowstorm after another, punctuated by subzero temperatures that are underscoring the pain. In Somerville, Massachusetts, Jewish tavern Lehrhaus suffered flooding from a burst pipe that closed the restaurant for a week. In Providence, Rhode Island, two pipes burst and flooded Claudine, a six-month-old fine-dining restaurant from two Per Se alums. The restaurant has yet to reopen.

Each time a storm bears down, restaurants have to calculate how much it will hurt financially to remain closed. It would have cost Brooklyn's Otway Bakery between $8,000 and $10,000 in sales if it hadn't opened for Monday's blizzard, according to a New York Times report. In Providence, corner bistro Frank & Laurie's opened on Wednesday selling just two items: pancakes and hash browns. The following day, the restaurant had the worst sales day in its nearly two-year existence and decided to celebrate with free brownies for brunch customers on Friday.

Ayesha Nurdjaja, the chef and partner of popular Mediterranean spots Shuka and Shukette in downtown Manhattan, proposed in a Grub Street story — written by former Pro contributor Oset Babür-Winter — that the city should consider offering grants to independent restaurants when it declares a weather emergency. Perhaps the money could go towards covering revenue losses sustained during the storm, or help cover payroll while staff can't come to work. I like this idea, and I'm glad that Nurdjaja is saying it publicly. It reminded me of how my parents, who were farmers, have received disaster relief funds after harsh weather wreaked havoc on the grape crops that supplied their annual income.

Could this work for restaurants, too? If restaurants are the lifeblood of local communities, it's in each city government's best interest to make sure that they aren’t scuttled by forces that are completely out of their control. Pros, would you support this kind of legislation? Are there other ideas out there to help support distressed restaurants? Let me know at the email below.

In the meantime, while financial relief for blizzard-battered restaurants is still just a thought, I have a request for readers in the Northeast: Don't cancel those weekend reservations.

Take care,
Erika