Of all the business sectors impacted by the COVID crisis, the food-service industry has been among the hardest hit. Between March and June, The National Restaurant Association—which represents nearly 500,000 food service establishments—forecasts a loss of $145 billion in revenue, and more than eight million restaurant employees laid off or furloughed at the height of the shutdown. As the National Restaurant Association’s executive vice president of public affairs, Sean Kennedy has his finger on the pulse of the culinary landscape across America. We caught up with Kennedy from his home in Washington, D.C., to share his thoughts on the state of the industry.

How were restaurants doing before COVID?
As we moved into the first quarter of 2020, the signs were encouraging. Spending was up. We thought this would be one of our better years for the industry and that we were fully out of any signs of economic recession. People were not talking about expanding their businesses, but they began the spring of 2020 with optimism that this would be a good starting point for further growth looking into 2021.

And then what happened in mid-March?
On March 14, which was a Saturday, Hoboken, New Jersey, was the first city to shut down dining operations effective at midnight. Suddenly, you have an industry that was literally preparing for St. Patrick’s Day and Mother’s Day that found itself shut down on a nationwide basis.

How many restaurants are projected to shut down permanently?
That’s a really tough question. You have to make assumptions about how long the pandemic will last and what the reopening timeline will be. What everyone is discovering are the lingering effects of the pandemic, particularly in hotspot states in the Sun Belt. That’s led many states to roll those requirements back. Over past two weeks nationwide, the state and local governments have reclosed 100,000 restaurants [which just happened this week in Baltimore City.] Restaurants are not designed with an on-off switch. Restaurants are designed to be in use seven days a week, roughly 14 to 16 hours a day. It’s a very thin profit margin of four-to-six percent and that assumes a full house, particularly a full house in the high season, which is what we’ve been in since March 16. The health consequences of the pandemic have been awful, so I don’t want to appear dull to that, but the timing of this was particularly challenging for restaurants because it is this period when we can afford to save enough money, so that we can afford to stay open with the full contingent of staff in the leaner months when it’s cold outside.

“Restaurants are not designed with an on-off switch. Restaurants are designed to be in use seven days a week, roughly 14 to 16 hours a day.” —Sean Kennedy

Pivot has become the word of the year. How have restaurants pivoted?
What has been really remarkable about this industry is how quickly so many small businesses redefined themselves and their business models literally over a 10-day period. Restaurants that swore they would never do takeout and delivery went back to basics and said, ‘How do we make something that is going to be delicious and enjoyable, and so distinctly identifiable to this restaurant, but can travel through a third-party delivery or can be picked up at a counter?’ It required a lot of innovation. Another thing is cocktails to-go. That doesn’t sound like a big one, but the margins on cocktails to-go are such that for some restaurants that’s almost 20 percent of their monthly revenue. One of the new things this has brought to light is that when people order a takeout Mexican meal, they want to get their favorite margarita prepared by the restaurant.

Are there any other examples of pivots that you’ve seen?
A lot of restaurants are making their menus simpler. They have fewer dishes with fewer total ingredients that the kitchen needs to have. This helps lower costs and increase efficiencies in the back of the house.

What are some of the bigger struggles right now?
Probably the biggest fear we have right now is these restaurants that are being closed down again. It is so capital-intensive to open up a restaurant. At least a third of your costs are perishable goods. If you get it wrong on how many people will walk through your doors or the state shuts you down again, that’s a lot of inventory that literally has to be given to employees for their families or food banks. With four-to-six percent profit margins, you can’t be wrong too many times.

Can you talk about hygiene and safety in restaurants in the age of COVID and its impact on the bottom line?
The restaurant industry has really been at the forefront of hygiene, cleanliness, and safety. We are highly regulated as an industry for food-borne illnesses already. Restaurants pivot quickly on how to deal with airborne viruses like coronavirus, so we have the protocols in place, but the challenge becomes what you do if you are operating at a capacity with restrictions. Your fixed costs like rent remain the same, but now you’re spending more money for things like training and PPE. What do you do with prices? Do you increase prices, or put in a COVID surcharge? Do you reduce the number of people working in restaurants? It has been a challenge for so many restaurant owners.

“If you get it wrong on how many people will walk through your doors or the state shuts you down again, that’s a lot of inventory that literally has to be given to employees for their families or food banks. With four-to-six percent profit margins, you can’t be wrong too many times.”

Is there one type of restaurant that will fare better than another?
If you’re not in a takeout and delivery space, you’re not going to exist. Most high-end restaurants might be able to afford to weather the storm a little longer because they are destinations in and of themselves, but with most restaurants what we are seeing much more of is that they are more attuned to third-party delivery or doing takeout. We know it’s sticking with millennials—we are waiting to see what consumers who are older than millennials are going to do when we are in a post-pandemic world. Will they return to the dine-in experience in the same numbers? There’s a lot of uncertainty right now because even in some communities with the 50 percent capacity, they’re still not seeing full houses. We don’t have the confidence level from consumers that our country needs to have right now.

Are there any other trends you’re seeing in the industry right now?
The other trend we will see is smaller footprints from a real-estate perspective. Smaller might be better. You’re going to have to find a way to social-distance if you have an enormous physical space but can’t put many tables in there. You need to use kitchen space and dining space more efficiently to maximize the revenue that comes out of that. Also, we’re all looking to see what the rise of the ghost kitchen will be. Is there going to be more of an effort to do virtual restaurants that just do takeout? So, it’s the same quality of food, the same kind of a meal, but it’s designed to be consumed at home and made in a kitchen that’s more economically feasible. It’s a trend you’re going to see seeing more of nationally.

The average restaurant has only 16 days of cash on hand—that’s one of the lowest for small businesses of any industry. The biggest misconception that we get with policymakers is that they go into a restaurant, see a full house, and they say, ‘These guys must be raking it in.’ But what they don’t appreciate is that just to eke out a five- percent profit margin, a restaurant needs to be a full house almost every night of the year. If you do that, you can keep your doors open. This could not be coming at a worse point for us now.

“When you talk to people about what they miss the most, it’s always about not being able to go out to a restaurant.”

Despite the hurdles, why are we continuing to dine out?
This has really demonstrated the importance of restaurants during the times of crisis. Usually, if there is a hurricane or a fire that takes down a community, the first thing to reopen is a restaurant and that restaurant immediately goes into support mode. They are either supporting first responders or they are supporting families who are still without power or don’t have the wherewithal to make a meal. This is coming at a time when our entire industry was shut down simultaneously. When you talk to people about what they miss the most, it’s always about not being able to go out to a restaurant. This is anecdotal, but always in the top three. People have their favorite place. It gives them a feeling of not only comfort, but that everything is going to be okay. They can still get their favorite dish.

Who will be hardest hit?
The folks that are really going to suffer the most are the smallest restaurants. If you are a small independent or a small franchise owner, you have so much less coverage right now. You have less access to less capital. You are a lot more vulnerable. And for the restauranteurs and the chefs, that’s their proving ground. It can’t be only larger restaurant groups or larger chains or independents that are sustainable. We need to make sure that all segments of the industry are somehow able to find a way to survive. It’s such a delicate ecosystem and we want to do everything we can to preserve it.

Chef Dave Thomas first came to cooking while working for an independent record company. “We brought this rapper by the name of Chubb Rock to Baltimore,” he recalls, “and part of his contract said he needed certain [foods]. I told them that I’d see if Tonya—who was my girlfriend at the time, and working as a caterer—could handle it. And she said that she could.”

Thomas was impressed by how much creativity went into Tonya’s cooking, and he was hooked. He went on to work for a caterer and eventually opened Herb & Soul, a restaurant in Parkville, in 2012. It was then that he became fascinated by soul food cuisine and, as the great grandson of a slave, the stories that it could tell.

In 2017, Dave and Tonya opened Ida B’s Table, the modern soul food spot where they worked until this spring. Now, they’ve moved beyond Ida B’s to juggle a number of new projects, from a cookbook proposal to a catering venture. We caught up with the husband-and-wife duo to talk about what’s next.

Last time we spoke, you shared that you were heading down South to do some filming with your good friend, writer and culinary historian Michael Twitty. How was your trip?
Dave Thomas: We just got back from Whitestone, Virginia. Michael is down there doing some content creation. He had a photographer and videographer and asked us to help with the cooking. We were on this property called Enon Hall, which is a former plantation right off the banks of the Rappahannock. Originally it was 600 acres, but they sold that off a long time ago. Now the family members, descendants of the original owners, own about seven acres. They refurbished the house and redid the slave kitchen that’s still existing on the property. We were cooking out of that kitchen—it was very rewarding.

What did you cook?
DT: We cooked for two days. We made beaten biscuits and yeast rolls, chicken and oysters—we steamed some crabs to make a Chesapeake gumbo. We made peanut stew, beef stew, and Carolina gold rice. We made waffles with an 18th-century waffle iron. We cooked on an open hearth. It was really like our ancestors cooked. We used pots that had been on the property and reacquired through estate and yard sales to bring back to the property.

“Most people don’t understand that Maryland is the South. It’s not the Deep South, but it is the South and there were a lot of enslaved people that came to this part of the country. There’s a lot of rich history here. I want to tap into that.” —Dave Thomas

That must have been incredibly moving.
DT: It was emotional. I got a chance to walk the grounds. I could feel the presence of my ancestors. We got there early and didn’t leave until after the sun had gone down. I felt more comfortable once it got dark. I just felt more of a calm at night than there was during the day, maybe it was the spirit of our ancestors giving us their blessing that we were recognizing the work and struggle that they had gone through. It was also interesting to be right on the banks of the Rappahannock River, which flows into the Chesapeake. There’s oysters and crabs and porgies—all of that stuff runs out of those waters. It was just amazing to be in touch with the agriculture of Maryland, Virginia, and the Chesapeake, and to be in touch with our ancestors all at the same time.

Last time we spoke, you mentioned that there was a cookbook in the works. Can you tell me more about that?
DT: We are just in the process. I signed with my literary agency, [New York-based] David Black, once I got back from a trip to Africa. Shortly after that, I signed a working agreement with my co-author, Osayi Endolyn, who is an incredible writer and has won a James Beard Award. We are developing the proposal right now. I’m focusing on soul food and how it pertains to the mid-Atlantic and Maryland. Maryland is right below the Mason-Dixon line, but most people don’t understand that Maryland is the South. It’s not the Deep South, but it is the South and there were a lot of enslaved people that came to this part of the country. There’s a lot of rich history here. I want to tap into that and make people aware of that, and create some recipes around that.

“Beaten biscuits are a Maryland thing. Maryland has its own fried chicken. Terrapin soup started here. Of course, there’s crab soup and oysters became more prevalent as a dish that would be presented on the table for those they cooked for.” —Tonya Thomas

What are some of those recipes that are distinctly from Maryland?
Tonya Thomas: Beaten biscuits are a Maryland thing. Maryland has its own fried chicken. Terrapin soup started here. Of course, there’s crab soup and oysters became more prevalent as a dish that would be presented on the table for those they cooked for. They were familiar with these foods and they knew what to do with them.

Why did the two of you decide to start a conversation series on Instagram Live?
DT: We have just met so many people in the industry, and certainly Ida B’s and Herb & Soul were catalysts for that. We wanted other people to hear their voices. We are not in this struggle alone in terms of reclaiming this narrative about our history and doing it through food. There are a lot of people around the country who are trying to talk about the struggle. We just wanted to have a place where we could bring those people in, have conversations with them, and have other people hear their stories. It’s really grown. We’ve gotten people like Michael Twitty and Howard Conyers, who is rocket scientist and a pitmaster. This week, we are talking about Black farmers.

With your winnings from Chopped in 2018, you recently traveled to Senegal and the Gambia with your family. What did you learn by going there?

DT: The biggest thing we learned is that the African people are more than resilient. They create these communities that work together. Every day we got up and were driving to a village or going to meet a chief at one of the villages. We went to Kunta Kinteh Island. We went to the National African Museum of Senegal. While we were there, we went to these outdoor markets. Once you get there, you see how well everyone works together. You find out how much this country has broken the spirit of Africa. It’s almost like we’ve been turned against each other and we are more concerned about what we have than who we have it with. That was really powerful to learn. We went to these villages and each one had a welcoming ceremony for us. There was one where we sat down with elders on this carpet and the main elder said, “Welcome home. We have been waiting for you.” And that just tore me up. These people have a sense of community. They work together and love each other and sacrifice for each other.

TT: A lot of us in this country have a big misconception of what Africa is like, until you get there. And not only that, but we had a misconception that they dislike African Americans—like, “You’re not from here.” That’s how we were told and what we were made to feel like, but it’s not the case. We were just family.

Are you thinking about opening another restaurant?
DT: I’m always thinking about my next restaurant. This is just one component of what we are doing. My business partners and I have started a company called Heirloom Food Group. The food group will have several different focuses. One is a high-end catering facility on Sinclair Lane in Northeast Baltimore. The second is a fast-casual concept. And the third is some type of catering tapas bar and restaurant. We’re also thinking about land. My partners and I have bought 10 acres of land and we are going to be growing on that land for all of our different properties and entities.

TT: Right now, the thing is learning how to pivot. We have these different concepts, but it will depend on how things are moving forward. We’re just trying to figure out what the dining experience is going to look like.

“The enslaved cooked what they had. They had no supermarkets to go to, so if you weren’t growing, catching, foraging, or hunting it, you weren’t eating it. I want people to know that we are far more than collard greens and fried chicken—that’s my purpose in life.” —Dave Thomas

Why do restaurants matter?
DT: Just from an employment aspect, restaurants employ a large swatch of the population in this country. For the Black and brown communities, they are one of the largest employers of our people, so they’re important for that aspect alone. On top of that you have restaurants that are really telling stories. You need people to be able to speak about who they are and bring their culture to the forefront—there’s no better way to do that than through food.

Would you go into hospitality again given the challenges?

DT: This is who we are. I love the business. I love and hate it at the same time. I love it because it gives me a way to express myself and it gives me a forum to speak about the things that are important to me. I hate it because it is a business and a business requires you to be focused on numbers. I’ve told everyone that Ida B’s was a social experiment as much as it was a business. What I was trying to do—and I really didn’t get my hands deep enough into it—is to show that soul food is not just fried chicken and macaroni and cheese.

Soul food is not a monolithic cuisine, much like it’s not a monolithic race of people who created it. Soul food is an extension of Southern food. Southern food is an extension of barbecue, creole, and Cajun. All of these things were created by the hands of the enslaved. The enslaved cooked what they had. They had no supermarkets to go to, so if you weren’t growing, catching, foraging, or hunting it, you weren’t eating it. I want people to know that we are far more than collard greens and fried chicken—that’s my purpose in life. There’s a lot more to this cuisine than those items that are stereotyped and put in the front. That’s the one thing that I regret about Ida B’s. I was not able to stretch out as much as I wanted to.

Chef Johntay Bedingfield took first place on Chopped in 2019, but getting creative during the COVID crisis has also put his talents to the test.

“Restaurants will survive this,” Bedingfield says. “You go out to eat because you don’t have time to cook or you just feel like getting pampered. People can let go and enjoy the moment and the company of people they are with. That’s not going to go away.”

Bedingfield, who grew up watching his mother and grandmother cook, has been La Food Marketa’s executive chef since 2016. But he didn’t come to cooking right away. He studied psychology at Wesley College in Delaware and became a substance abuse counselor before becoming a childcare worker for the Board of Child Care in Baltimore for several years.

“I was like, ‘School is over. I’m in my 20s and have to figure out a career move. Maybe I’ll just start cooking,’” he says. “I had always liked cooking. I love comfort food and home-cooked meals.”

He decided to enroll at Baltimore International College for a master’s degree in international hospitality management. “I got a job at Sunday River in the Towson mall. I started as a prep cook. Right away, I was like, ‘I love this.’”

And the rest is Baltimore food history.

What has it been like at La Food Marketa throughout the crisis?
On March 16th, the day we officially went into a state of emergency, I worked that day, but we weren’t open for service that evening. We laid off all hourly employees—that was extremely difficult—but with not being able to open to capacity, we had to pull the trigger. We have dedicated management teams, so we just spilt them up between the La Food Marketa, [Hampden sister-spot] The Food Market, and our catering, and it was divide and conquer. That Tuesday, we tried curbside pickup. It was slow that night, but pretty much every week has been different. We’ve tried to stay up on what others states and countries are doing that are ahead of us. Safety has been our first priority. That first week we set a handwashing timer. It was an hourly timer so we could get into the cycle of washing our hands. It was annoying, but it worked. Now we call it “muscle hour.” Since we have no tables now, everyone stops and does 10 pushups in the middle of the dining room and washes their hands. It breaks up the day and its team building.

How is your patio dining going?
We just got through our first week of patio dining. When it was put into effect, essentially, we had only 24 hours to turn over outdoor procedures by that Friday, but we didn’t think it was the right time. There was too much to get moving and execute safely and correctly, so we waited. I think a first impression makes all the difference. There’s a level of accountability there that’s hard to gain back once you lose it. We waited until last Monday and I think it couldn’t have gone better. We had a great night. We sat 60 people throughout the night outside, and carryout was still popping.

“That first week we set an hourly handwashing timer so we could get into the cycle of washing our hands. It was annoying, but it worked. Now we call it “muscle hour.” Since we have no tables now, everyone stops and does 10 pushups in the middle of the dining room and washes their hands. It breaks up the day and its team building.” —Johntay Bedingfield

What safety systems have you put in place?
We shifted gears and moved our pickup to the back side of the restaurant. We are requesting that guests wear masks to the table for the safety and the staff is wearing masks the whole time. We have QR codes at the table for contactless menus and hand sanitizer at each table. We are just trying to stay as up with the trends as possible.

How does this change things for you as a chef?
I could spend hours and hours overthinking what the future is going to bring, but I’ve learned it doesn’t do anything for me. It’s 100 percent under the control of the government right now. We could have 30 ideas on what the next move is going to be, but what I’ve learned over the past 13 weeks is to just wait for them to give the word and then you react. I’ve always been a fan of “the worst decision is no decision,” so once they pull the trigger, we will react to that.

How is your revenue?
Our overall revenue is down. You have three factors when it comes to revenue. You have rent, which is fixed. But you have two things you can control, labor and food purchasing, so we’ve controlled both of those things.

How do you know how much to order?
It’s extremely difficult. My food costs have been at 26 percent each week. The goal is 30 percent to make a 10 percent profit. You get what you need to get in the beginning of the week, and then you have to anticipate what you’re going to need for the weekend and keep spending as tight as possible.

Have you had to change the menu?
As a dish comes to me, I just throw it on the menu and see if we can sell it. One thing that has helped a lot is cross utilization of a product, so you’ll see ground turkey across a few dishes. We have it in our house-made turkey chorizo, or you can add it to queso, or get Turkey chorizo tacos, or get a ground turkey taco salad. So you know that you will always be moving the product, which definitely helps. Other than that, it’s all about seasonal for me—cooking with what the farmers have. I recently got these fresh soft shells from J.J. McDonnell and made soft-shell arepas.

Are you finding that diners are more appreciative now?
The diners have absolutely been extremely grateful. They thank us for being here. That makes our job less stressful to know that the community has us and we’ve made the right move by being there for them.

I know that a lot of chefs have had more time to cook at home. Have you?
The restaurant is closed earlier and opening at noon. I’ve had some more time in the morning cooking breakfast, which is really nice.

Do you think fewer people will want to go into hospitality now that they see how hard a business it is?
I joked with my wife, Alexa, that everyone, including all of those people making their sourdough, is a home cook right now. I’d love some of these people to take their passion and come to the restaurant kitchen. I feel like a lot of people have found the simplicity in life. The hustle and bustle have slowed down a little bit. I don’t know what that will do for the restaurant industry if people are cooking at home more, but there will always be a place for restaurants—no question.

“I joked with my wife, Alexa, that everyone, including all of those people making their sourdough, is a home cook right now. I’d love some of these people to take their passion and come to the restaurant kitchen.” —Johntay Bedingfield

I know that Hoopla Hospitality, which includes La Food Marketa, The Food Market, Quality Snowballs, and Hoopla Catering is very community-minded. Have you done anything in the wake of the recent protests for racial justice?
Last Wednesday, we sold gift certificates and 50 percent of gift card sales went to the NAACP.

On a personal note, you recently lost 50 pounds. Can you tell us about it?
I saw myself on Chopped and didn’t like the way I looked. I had a complete lifestyle change.
I just switched my mind to think of what I enjoyed eating. It was easy as a chef to just throw something in the fryer—it cooks super fast and a few minutes later it’s ready to eat. But I told myself that I get the best fruits and vegetables and meat. We work with these local farmers, and the beauty of being in the restaurant is that everything is already set up—your lettuces and tomatoes and cukes are already cut. I just changed my eating habits.

I have this thing that I call, “walking the line.” I start on the cold side and I’ll grab a bowl and start with a base of vegetables, which is going to be lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. Then I walk over to the sauté station and add some onion. And then I throw turkey chorizo on there and add pico de gallo and guacamole. And it’s a one-minute meal. I’ve had this mental switch. I live for a really good salad now.

As they drop carryout into cars, Linwood and Ellen Dame can be seen waving from the curb of their Owings Mills fine-dining restaurant. But behind the scenes, they have been busy making preparations to reopen Linwoods once Governor Hogan gives the green light on indoor dining. From turning their popular grill line into a carryout area to using a new health screening app, there are endless details to work through as they get ready to welcome patrons back to their dining room. “We feel like we are starting a new business,” says Linwood. “Everything we did on March 16th doesn’t mean anything anymore, everything is new.”

You waited a little while to open up for curbside carryout. What factored into your decision?
Linwood Dame: When we closed on March 16th, things were in disarray as to what was going on and I really wanted to get more information—for my employees, for my own family—about what we should do and how we should do it. By doing that, we’d do our part by closing up and everyone would just go home. We met the last payroll we had and then furloughed a good amount of people and kept some people on payroll, then waited to see what was going on.

So how is carryout going given that you’re a fine-dining restaurant?
LD: Curbside has been pretty good. We’ve had a great turnout. We were doing it five nights a week and are going to seven nights a week. Overall, the turnout has been pretty good. We are just dropping food in people’s trunks and we are also out there greeting cars—I’ve seen some nice cars go by, by the way. And the conversations I’ve had have been pretty fascinating. People can’t wait to talk to someone—everyone wants to engage in conversation, which is great.

“You really need to think about how you’re going to pack the food. We tested everything. We would make it, put it in the package, and let it sit for a half hour to an hour and figure out what worked and what didn’t work.” —Linwood Dame

I’ve had your carryout myself. In addition to the food being delicious, I noticed how well everything was packaged.
LD: You really need to think about how you’re going to pack the food. We tested everything. We would make it, put it in the package, and let it sit for a half hour to an hour and figure out what worked and what didn’t work, so it took some work to get there. We have things on our menu like octopus and fried Brussels sprouts that people love. We are going to start working on it and see if we can offer those items as carryout.

What hasn’t lent itself to carryout?
Ellen Dame: We decided not to do French fries. We’ve gotten a lot of calls for them, but they just turn into mush.

LD: The fried chicken has worked out well. I’m like a Kentucky Fried Chicken. I love fried chicken, but my god it’s a lot of fried chicken.

I’ve also noticed that you’ve included some nice touches like a bow on the bag and a note from the two of you.
LD: We do appreciate our customers. We want them to know we care, and we want to give them some information about what we are doing in our space—they’ll get more as time goes on. Our customers need to reach a comfort level with us and a trust level to be comfortable—I think that’s really key.

ED: We take pride in our food. We thought the packaging should be reflective of the fact that you’re not just going to the neighborhood pizza parlor and picking up a bowl of spaghetti. We wanted it to feel a little bit more special.

LD: We’ve had people pull up and have tailgate parties in the parking lot.

ED: There was one time where one couple lives in Carroll County and the other couple lives in Harford County and they meet at the restaurant for dinner because it’s halfway for each of them. They met on a Friday night and brought their fold-up chairs and table, they social distanced and they sat in the parking lot.

LD: We had someone in a Mercedes motor home who pulled up to the parking lot, set up a little tent, put the table and the candles out, and ordered wine and dinner.

“People want to see other people. Ninety-nine percent of the people keep their window open to have a conversation and that gives me hope that there is a future for the dining out business. There have been times when I felt really hopeless.” —Ellen Dame

So how is revenue?
LD: Business is down 70 percent—that includes catering.

What do you see as the immediate future of restaurants?
LD: Twenty-five percent to 50 percent capacity isn’t going to work. Some places, if they do a lot of carryout and have low overhead maybe, but that will work for very few restaurants. Places like ours, or Tagliata or Charleston, can’t operate at 50 percent. If you do, you’re going to operate at a loss no matter what happens. The restaurant business is built on volume. You have to have people in seats in order to make it work. For us, I have a lot of space—two big dining rooms where I can fit a fair amount of people at 50 percent and I can spread people out with another 40 seats outside. But what about the restaurant downtown that can only seat 20 people?

ED: We’ve spent a lot of time reimagining what the restaurant business is going to be and how this is going to effect it, both short term and long term. It’s difficult because people are nervous, and I don’t blame them.

LD: We have done a tremendous amount of work within the space. I had countertops replaced and the hood systems completely redone. We’ve power washed the entire restaurant, sanitized everything, and then we are putting UVC lights in the HVAC that kills viruses. They are the same ones they use in hospitals. We’ve already done all our seating spread out six feet apart, we put plexiglass over our hostess stand, and we have sanitizer stations everywhere. Now, we have to get into the protocol of how we take an order, how do we read the menu, what does the server do when they take the credit card…There’s also an app we are going to use called Modjoul—it’s a health screening solution. All of our employees will have this app on their phones and every day. It’s a health check—instead of them coming to the restaurant, it’s done even before they arrive.

ED: It’s what we are doing by hand now—it’s pretty much what the healthcare facilities are doing.

Do you think we will continue to take these kinds of measure once there is a vaccine?
ED: The world is in for a readjustment. Our customers are concerned about their health—these things are going to matter. Woody and I have been standing on the curb every night with a mask and gloves six feet away from the car windows saying, ‘Hi’ to people. And all that first week, it felt really good because people cared, people were happy to see us and to see that we were open. We were also sensing a desire from people just craving contact. People want to see other people. Ninety-nine percent of the people keep their window open to have a conversation and that gives me hope that there is a future for the dining out business. There have been times when I felt really hopeless. In some form the business will come back and go forward. Things will change and a lot of trends out there now won’t survive this. The restaurants that survive are going to have to have a different format.

“Places like ours, or Tagliata or Charleston, can’t operate at 50 percent. If you do, you’re going to operate at a loss no matter what happens. The restaurant business is built on volume. You have to have people in seats in order to make it work.” —Linwood Dame

What will the dining room look like when you reopen?
LD: In the beginning, we are going to put an envelope on the tables, and you can put your mask in there while you’re having dinner. There won’t be salt and pepper on the table and you won’t get lemons and limes. You’ll get a straw that’s still covered in paper. Those are the details that we are still working on. There are thousands of these little details that we have to practice. We will learn as we go along and find things that we haven’t thought of and we will get better and better at it.

Have you been surprised by how fragile the industry is?
ED: For someone like Danny Meyer, who has been incredibly successful and smart in this business, to come out in the first two weeks and say, ‘I give up, there’s no way I can make it except for my takeout burger business,’ is pretty shocking.

LD: But what he said makes a lot of sense. He said, ‘Without a vaccine, the restaurant business is not going to make it on 50 percent seating’—everyone is saying that across the country. Restaurateurs are notorious for saying everything is great when everything is a mess—‘Oh, we had the busiest night of our lives’—yeah, that was three years ago. Now, there’s been a refreshing modesty.

On March 16, when Orto owner Elan Kotz learned that bars and restaurants would be closing with the exception of carryout and delivery, he was on-site working at his new project to bring back The Dizz in Remington.

“When we got the news, we immediately had to pivot into, ‘What were we going to do at Orto?’” says Kotz. “That Monday, I got with the team and my brand new executive chef, Chris Audia, and I just decided, ‘Let’s do this thing.’ He and I ran the phones and he cooked and packaged every meal for our first carryout—and it was a great night. It was a very humbling and beautiful experience. It was really hard work, but it was satisfying to know that we were still able to feed our guests.”

Kotz is confident that diners will be ever eager to eat out once restaurants reopen. “Whether your restaurant is big, medium-sized, or small, every restaurant has a soul and a heart,” he says, “and guests who have become family will come back to support them.”

How are you?
I’m doing well. Every day is a new adventure. Each day presents its own challenges, but at the same time, I am super grateful that we are able to feed our guests and provide work for a portion of our team.

It seems like you’ve mastered the carryout format—I’ve had it myself and it’s excellent. You’ve told me that you even have “carryout regulars.” Why do you think you’ve been so successful?
I really attribute a lot of the success of this to our team. Chris Audia, our sous chef Kris Calivo, and our pastry chef Theresa Louis—Chris Audia’s wife. My GM and I focused on the front-of-the-house logistics and packaging. For us, the most important part was sticking to our guns and cooking the food that we’ve always cooked. We offer a chicken parm family meal to make people feel comforted and warm them up, but we’re also still offering the dishes we love to provide to our guests. We are just cooking what we know, and the response has been incredible.

“Orto is a very small, intimate space that feels really cozy, but are people going to want to sit close to each other? When are we going to be able to do that? What does the timeline look like? Those question marks are why it’s been really hard to make any sort of a real plan.” —Elan Kotz

Tell me more about your new chef.
Chris was our opening sous chef and he went to Chez Hugo for a little while. He and Theresa, who was also at Chez Hugo, started back with us on March 4. We had one week of solid time working together, and then they were confronted with the challenge of the global pandemic—they’ve handled it beautifully.

How are your revenues?
Our revenue is down about 50 percent now from where we were because we’ve moved to a five-day week. The weekdays have been inconsistent, but weekends are holding us up. We reduced our labor and are mindful about purchasing. We’ve been able to make it work—some weeks we were able to break even. In the beginning there were some hard weeks, but we’ve really hit a good rhythm.

What has it been like to be in the space without most of your staff and no guests?
Every day is different. March 17th was one of the hardest days of my life and career. I had to lay off a large portion of our staff and that was a really, really tough day for me.

It took us a while to readjust all lights, which are on automatic settings and dim throughout the evening. The first time the lights dimmed on that Tuesday, March 17th at 10 of five, letting us know that we were five minutes out from opening, it was an incredibly emotional thing for all of us. And then, that first Saturday night being in that space, the same space that we’ve served so many incredible people and made memories and had this beautiful food on the table, it was 8:15 p.m. and we had pushed out all of our catering. We didn’t have any more orders—I looked at everyone and was like, ‘This would be our biggest push right now.’

“The first time the lights dimmed on that Tuesday, March 17th at 10 of five, letting us know that we were five minutes out from opening, it was an incredibly emotional thing for all of us.” —Elan Kotz

What do you recommend for first timers taking out?
The chicken Parm dinner has been a hit for tons of guests. It’s served over house-made rigatoni with garlic buns that Theresa makes, a Caesar salad, and a revolving dessert. For two people, it’s $40. We are trying to deliver value, as well as comfort. Also, we have revolving batch cocktails. My go-to is a black Manhattan that we do with an Averna Amaro instead of the vermouth. We also just added little after-dinner drinks—three ounce pours of house-made limoncello orangecello, and grapefruit pompicello—which have always been part of our experience here. We’re also adding a cheese and salumi plate and a grilled swordfish loin with fregola and mussels.

How does your chef stay inspired?
We did have to turn into a carryout model overnight. We are joking internally that when we get through this thing, we are going to wear matching track suits and get patches that say, ‘1,000 chicken Parms served!’ It’s delicious, but it’s not the most technical thing to make. Chef is still inspired to cook seasonally, seeing the ingredients that have been available and getting inspired from there. Last week we rolled out a new lamb sugo pasta dish.

What’s happening with your project to bring The Dizz back in Remington?
In this current climate, I did just put it on hold. I started the project 11 days before the coronavirus hit. For now, I am slowly picking it up, but I don’t have a sense of a timeline yet. In the first 11 days of working there, we got everything off the walls and started cleaning.

What will the culinary landscape look like when the pandemic is over?

I don’t think any of us know what this looks like on the other side. Every restaurant is unique. Orto is a very small space and it’s intimate and feels really cozy, but are people going to want to sit close to each other? When are we going to be able to do that? What does the timeline look like? What does the rollout look like? Those question marks are why it’s been really hard to make any sort of a real plan. We’re taking it day by day, week by week.

I don’t think it’s going to go right back to what it was at all for a while, and I do think restaurants will have to continue to do carryout as part of their regular offerings just to ensure that they are making it work and making ends meet. I want to do a hybrid restaurant once we are able to.

“We cannot wait to serve people back at a restaurant table—that will be one of the very best days.” —Elan Kotz

What changes do you think will happen as a result of the pandemic?
I know there will be changes as it pertains to how people want to be served. There will be touchless bathrooms and a forever focus on everything cleanliness, which we’ve always done, but now it has to be even more visible and transparent for the comfort level of our guests. I believe we will still have restaurants to eat out in, although things might change a bit—they will have to for a while. But can we tell what the future holds? Absolutely not. Is there a chance that we have to pivot again? Maybe. Some iconic restaurants may never reopen.

There’s also a massive cost associated with a restaurant reopening. You have to restock everything. A lot of it will come down to the diner and their comfort level and ability. There’s also an economic implication. People need to have the money to eat out. I’m hopeful. I’m an eternal optimist. I know this will be just fine and we will get to the other side and be stronger for it. And hopefully a lot more grateful.

Why do restaurants matter?
Restaurants matter for multiple reasons. They’re a place where people who love to give and nourish can work, whether they’re a bartender, a cook, or a dishwasher. There’s this built-in feeling of giving to people when they come in and dine here. It’s a social gathering—people love to connect over food. Food memories are made in restaurants over birthdays and special occasions, but eating out is also a thing to do when you’ve had a hard day at work and don’t want to go home and cook something. Also, for me, we employ so many incredible human beings who’ve built their careers and spent their lives in restaurants, and they matter because we have to make sure that all these people have somewhere to go on the other side of this thing. We cannot wait to serve people back at a restaurant table—that will be one of the very best days.

In the wake of Baltimore City extending its stay-home order last week, Sergio Vitale, chef-owner of Aldo’s Ristorante Italiano on High Street, has led a coalition of Little Italy spots hoping to close down one of the neighborhood’s main streets to allow for open-air seating so that customers can enjoy curbside fare en plein air.

Vitale was hoping the city government would support the efforts, but says that a private phone conversation with Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young did not go the way he’d hoped.

“I’ve never wanted to make this about me,” Vitale says, “But it fell to me to become the voice of a movement that’s growing in Baltimore City. This mayor’s response was, ‘If you try operate, we will shut you down.’ He said he would pull our food permit from the health department and shut us down. And I took that to mean permanently. I don’t want to make it about him, but he happens to be the decision maker in this right now—he and the governor. We need a lifeline here. All we’re asking for is an opportunity to earn a living.”

At press time, the mayor’s office couldn’t be reached for comment.

Tell me about your idea to have an outdoor food court in Little Italy.
The ideas are not original—we are just trying to do what other places have done. I’ve tried to pitch this “curbside-plus,” as I call it, sort of an outdoor food court idea. All the curbside rules are in place, you’d order the same as you order now, but you’d be able to eat like at Herald Square in New York. We’d bleach the tables in between and come up with the protocol. I was hoping this call to the mayor could have followed up with a meeting where we establish a protocol together with stakeholders, public policymakers, restaurateurs, and small businesses to talk next steps, but he dismissed the opportunity.

We are 10 weeks into restaurants and bars being closed for dining in by Governor Larry Hogan. Why did you come up with this plan now?
All the cuts that could have been made have been made. What else are we do to? Curbside is working for about half the restaurants in my anecdotal experience, but for the other half, it’s a slow way to lose money. They talk about next steps, and 25 percent occupancy is a fast way to lose a lot of money. We need 50 percent, and no one is really comfortable with that yet.

“Curbside is working for about half the restaurants in my anecdotal experience, but for the other half, it’s a slow way to lose money.” —Sergio Vitale

Why is 25 percent occupancy problematic?
With 25 percent occupancy, you’re at a different level of service. There’s more cost involved than just the curbside model. I have to zone air conditioning for that. I have to bring in staff. We have to assume liability. No one is talking about the potential of civil liability if someone were to, god forbid, contract COVID and blame you for it. I’m not sure how you’d prove it, but that’s a potential liability. And then rent is a tough thing. This is a sad and tiresome cliché, but this is unprecedented and we’re going to have to come up with new ways to do it.

Why the opposition?
He’s making a public health argument. He says, ‘What if we have outdoor dining and someone coughs?’ Well, why is the restaurant industry being held to a different standard? The city is encouraging people to go out on bike lanes and closing streets to exercise, so if the measure is someone coughs within 50 feet of you, we will never move forward. And people have to assess their own risk, we are not forcing this on anyone.

I closed my restaurant the day before the governor mandated it. I check four of the five boxes for high risk on COVID, so I take it seriously. My father is 75, he checks five of the five boxes. We don’t want to put anyone at risk, our staff or our guests, but we are trying to thread this needle to move forward and this is just a baby step. I’m now so concerned because what should have been an easy opportunity to work together has been so thoroughly rejected. I’m worried about the whole restaurant industry in the city now.

What is the workaround if the mayor is trying to shut you down?
We want him to publicly commit that if the governor further eases restrictions, he will retroactively follow suit. In Little Italy, we were in the position of wanting to take this matter in our own hands, at our own risk. We were going to shut down the street ourselves, put tables in the streets, serve invited guests, and invite the media to show what it would look like. I invited the mayor to come to that to announce a revision to his policy and use that opportunity and he yelled at me and said that he would shut us down, fine us, open the streets, and pull the health permit from the health department. I can’t ask any of my colleagues to risk their entire businesses just to make a point, so we are going to rachet up the pressure and continue the good fight.

It has been suggested that we reconvene with a group of experts so we can give the mayor a proposal. I don’t see why we have to do that—other cities have done the yeoman’s work on this. If he wants a benchmark, there are a 1,000 of them out there. I ended my acrimonious phone call with the mayor by saying, ‘Let’s not end on a sour note. Thanks for taking my call and let’s keep the lines of communication open.’ That’s still my position. At the end of the day, it’s not about either of us, it’s about the industry and the whole city.

“I’m now so concerned because what should have been an easy opportunity to work together has been so thoroughly rejected. I’m worried about the whole restaurant industry in the city now.” —Sergio Vitale

When did this all come about?
All of us have been trying to think about what next steps would look like for a number of weeks now and last week was a turning point in curbside. I hadn’t spoken with anyone who was open who didn’t see a downturn in their curbside business last week. I think the governor’s order [to reopen the beaches and boardwalks] was a wet kiss to Ocean City. People with two months cabin fever wanted to get out of the house and if they were allowed to do it legally, they were going to go down there. I think that was the impetus behind the downturn in Baltimore City last week. It just became more relevant. These programs that the government has created like PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] are not applicable for restaurants that easily. The state has been slow to give the grants. It became inevitable that if we didn’t start to raise our voices now, there would be nothing left to save in a few weeks.

How is carryout going for you?
My experience is the same as many others. It started off pretty strong. We love and appreciate the support. One of the things you find out at this time is who your friends are. It’s just amazing at this time to see the people coming out. It’s really humbling, but it’s not a sustainable model. Last week, we had our worst week with curbside. We rebounded on Saturday and Sunday a little bit. But from Monday until Saturday, we did about $4,000 in sales total. I heard from other restaurants last Tuesday that they did $90 on curbside.

But some of the restaurateurs are doing really well. At one point I was looking at our revenue and we were doing 25 percent of our normal volume with curbside. One of the things that allows us to operate curbside are the generous gratuities of the people picking up, which is amazing. Talk about stepping up—if the mayor and political class would step up in the way that the general public has, it would be an amazing thing. Instead, we have this contempt and adversarial relationship, which is disappointing.

Every day I talk to Alex Smith of Atlas Restaurant Group, I talk to Patrick Russell at Kooper’s in Fells Point, Jim Kinney at The Capital Grille, Chad Gauss at The Food Market, and Elan Kotz at Orto, who used to work for me. We have formed a coalition to try to move forward. I will tell you, it’s difficult for an Italian guy like me to be restrained, but we have to do something here to move forward. I feel compelled to speak out at this point.

“Despite the devastation to our industry, as rents reset, there will be another opportunity for a renaissance that we’ve seen in Baltimore recently—sort of small chef-driven funky and fun and often ethnic concepts, which is what makes a city exciting.” —Sergio Vitale

What will the culinary landscape look like when this is all over?
It’s a mixed bag. Sadly, I think 50 percent of restaurants will not reopen. You’ll have to make a reinvestment to open fully for indoor dining, that’s tens of thousands of dollars in training and supplies. If you don’t close permanently before that happens, you might find yourself in a position to have to close permanently after. Having said that, despite the devastation to our industry, as rents reset, there will be another opportunity for a renaissance that we’ve seen in Baltimore recently—sort of small chef-driven funky and fun and often ethnic concepts, which is what makes a city exciting. That would be a positive outcome of this.

Why do you think there will be more chef-driven spots?
Big chains will probably dominate the landscape for a while, but when there’s a correction in the rental market, no one will charge the rents they did before. People are going to start to see opportunity for small, 500-square foot to 1,000 square-foot models, maybe delivery and curbside-oriented. My sense is that these are how these things percolate up. Fine dining is a particularly challenging area because of concerns about the spread of COVID indoors, but the whole model has been under assault for years with razor thin margins and this only exacerbates the underlying problems. After the initial shock, how the restaurant business will re-engage is small, less expensive to open models.

Will restaurants survive?
It’s a human need to want to break bread in the company of others. That’s the reality. This is what we do. Those of us who were foolish enough to get into this business before will be foolish enough to get into it again. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of devastation in between.

Would you pursue this career path again?
When people ask about the restaurant business, I often say the good days are great and the bad days are horrible. On average, it’s a really fun thing. I’ve eaten better than medieval kings. I’ve been in the company of some amazing people who’ve bettered society and are captains of industry. I’m afforded the opportunity to have these experiences because of the restaurant business. And then all the staff that has worked with us. I love the business, it’s a good way to use my highly unemployable political science degree from Loyola. If I had to do it all over again, I would.

“It’s a human need to want to break bread in the company of others. That’s the reality. This is what we do. Those of us who were foolish enough to get into this business before will be foolish enough to get into it again.” —Sergio Vitale

You’ve definitely been a crusader for the city, where does that come from?
Mom was a fighter and both of my parents have a deeply imbued contempt for any sense of injustice. I think I probably picked up a little bit of that. I know it’s tough the inequities right now, and you have to balance that with public health concerns, but picking winners and losers by the government is not a just thing. I think I probably got the fighting spirit from mom. She fought small cell lung cancer for 14 months. That’s a terminal diagnosis from the beginning and she fought it to the end. It’s hard not to witness something like that and be inspired.

Why do restaurants matter?
Why do you go to a city except to dine well and to have an opportunity to see some culture in the company of like-minded people? Isn’t it an ancient Greek who said “all good things of this earth flow into the city?” Restaurants are the tip of the spear.

From the get-go—when it opened in late 2018—Baltimoreans have known that the tiny Le Comptoir du Vin in Station North, with its homey French classics and some 34 seats, was something special. But last year, when Bon Appetit named the boîte one of the Best New Restaurants in America (followed by a shout-out in Esquire as the “sexiest third-date spot in America”), co-owner couple Rosemary Liss and Will Mester found themselves in the center of a feeding frenzy, and scoring a table became something of a sport.

Now, with their normal operations shut down, the pandemic has given the duo a chance to regroup, reflect, and even open an online bottle shop featuring their natural wines. Plus, they’re offering a rotating menu of items including their signature lentils and silken pâté for carryout.

“What’s happening now is terrible,” says Mester, “and we want to get back to real life, but this feels like a sabbatical.” Adds Liss: “It has been wild for sure. We are feeling lucky because we had that year—it gives us support now. It has also given us a chance to catch our breath, so there is a silver lining.”

How did you come up with your new business model of running an online bottle shop?
Rosemary Liss: Waking up every morning in panic mode, you have to try to utilize that energy into something. We were starting to see restaurants, especially in New York, doing carryout models specifically with wine, so setting up a bottle shop online was our first step. We weren’t sure we were comfortable selling food at the time.

What did it take to set up the site?
RL: I spent the first three days learning how to use the Squarespace e-commerce platform, cataloging and photographing all of our wine, and putting our inventory online—that saved us. It gave us a chance to take a second and step back to reflect, but also keep paying our bills. Because we’d been so busy, we ordered a ton of wine. We were were sitting on 1,000 bottles at one point, so I was like, ‘Let’s just keep it moving,’ and people were excited to stock up for the impending quarantine and also support us.

I spent the first three days learning how to use the Squarespace e-commerce platform, cataloging and photographing all of our wine, and putting our inventory online—that saved us. —Rosemary Liss

What about menu items?
RL: We have added food, but we’re keeping it really minimal for safety. Our menu is so small based on our space, so we rotate through things.

Will Mester: We make a stew every week that tends to revolve around what heirloom beans I can get, which are really hard to come by right now. Basically, I go to various groceries, raid their shelves, and then use a seasonal ingredient or two. On a whim, I put pozole on the menu, which is completely uncharacteristic of something that would be on our menu food-wise, but it’s a time to just experiment a little bit and not be so on brand. I really do cook with what I want to cook. The restaurant is just a reflection of our personalities and we are not trying to be so rigid. In this context, it comes naturally to just do things that we don’t typically do.

RL: We also have to think about what we can package that will be enjoyable for people to eat in their own home and reheat so it feels fresh and delicious when they sit down to eat it. Originally, we were trying to work with what we had in stock and trying not to spend anything, if possible.

How are things working for you revenue-wise?
RL: In April, we had a little bit of a loss because we were paying off vendors from more robust times, but it was very minimal. Luckily, we had a little bit of support savings. I’m hoping now, because we’ve been really steady, that we can stay even. I feel like the fear of waking up every morning and being like, ‘Are we going to survive this?’ has passed. I try to channel it into these projects. But then there’s always the fear that people are going to stop spending money. Things are going well, and we have consistent business, but will that last?

There’s always the fear that people are going to stop spending money. Things are going well, and we have consistent business, but will that last? —Rosemary Liss

I know you were booked for months prior to the pandemic and heard through the grapevine that you wrote a personal note to patrons whose reservations had to be canceled.
RL: Resy has been phenomenal through all of this and they waived all fees through next December. They cancelled everything for us, but I wanted to send a personal note, so I was able to pull that entire list of people who had reservations through the following month and email everyone to say they will be the first to know when we reopen. When we reopen the books, they get first dibs. It was 300 people. It was for 30 days of reservations starting March 16, which is when we had to close.

That’s such a lovely gesture.
RL: I think its really important right now. We are all struggling. I want people to know that we are still thinking about everyone we care about. From the start, something that was important to us was creating a space that was really convivial and we were there all the time interacting with customers. For those of us in the restaurant world, that’s the most important thing—making it feel like home.

WM: It’s important to have some kind of connection with your guests.

Have you thought about what it might look like when you reopen? Le Comptoir is tiny…how will social distancing work in such a small space?
RL: They were saying that restaurants might open at 25 percent capacity. If we open at 25 percent, there would be like five people in there—it’s not worth it for us to run a restaurant. We can do more carryout than have people dine with us. We’ve played around with some ideas and have to see how things have unfolded in other states. We’re starting to pay attention to see what works and what doesn’t. We are taking it slowly, day by day, re-evaluating things constantly, and not making any rash decisions right now.

Food on some level can only be so interesting, but when you put it in the context of sitting in the restaurant and having that experience, it’s special. —Will Mester

What’s it like to be in the space without the hustle and bustle of the dining room?
WM: In many ways, it’s not all that different from just a typical prep day. For me, it feels just like you’re preparing for a private event.

RL: I have been enjoying the aspect of it feeling like you’re running a little shop, photographing everything, setting everything up, getting the orders together. In some ways, there’s less stress not preparing for a really busy dinner.

Will you have carryout when you reopen?
WM: Carryout is not really our M.O.

RL: It’s just a necessity right now, but it doesn’t ever fully replicate the experience of sitting down in the restaurant and enjoying the food Will makes.

WM: Food on some level can only be so interesting, but when you put it in the context of sitting in the restaurant and having that experience, it’s special.

From the start, something that was important to us was creating a space that was really convivial and we were there all the time interacting with customers. For those of us in the restaurant world, that’s the most important thing—making it feel like home. —Rosemary Liss

What are doing with your free time?
RL: For the first time since we opened the restaurant, we are sitting down to dinner.

WM: The first week was almost surreal to have the kind of energy to really cook well at home. We do a lot of cooking at home, but our free time is so limited, we don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen at home. The first week or two that we were here, we were just making good food and sitting down at the dining room table. It was really weird—now it feels normal. I’ve been really getting into baking, making pizza, and food projects that would be daunting or just seem like I wouldn’t have the time for otherwise—that has been incredible.

What kinds of things have you made?
WM: I got this really nice steak from John Brown—a strip steak with some really garlicky rosemary potatoes and some speck at the very end to season the steak with. It was one of the less complicated meals to put together. We also took the legs and thighs off a chicken carcass and rubbed the chicken down with an herb marinade. Then we put the speck underneath the chicken skin to make a sauce. There’s been a lot of really good cooking at the house.

RL: Sometimes we just eat chips and guac, though.

I’ve been doing more yoga, reading for pleasure, going to the shop. I’m getting into art projects that fell by the wayside and doing some kitchen stuff with Will like learning how to de-bone a chicken.

WM: We are just lucky with how small the restaurant is and how manageable it has been. Rosemary is working really hard right now getting the website together and dealing with daily operation there. But there has been of lot of new energy being developed. When we get back, all of this is going to work its way into how the restaurant operates. It will be a little bit of a new Comptoir, maybe only noticeable to us.

There’s going to be a lot of restaurants that close and a lot of restaurants that we love to go to that are really underrepresented, and that’s really sad. But restaurants are too old, they are too important, they will survive and things will get back. —Will Mester

Why do restaurants matter?
WM: At the end of the day, I’m extremely optimistic about restaurants. There’s going to be a lot of restaurants that close and a lot of restaurants that we love to go to that are really underrepresented, and that’s really sad. But restaurants are too old, they are too important, they will survive and things will get back.

A lot of people in this country are talking about what’s going to happen to restaurants. David Chang thinks that food is going to revert back to the ’80s or ’90s when there weren’t as many options and big chains running things, but I can’t imagine that people in Paris are wondering about the fate of their restaurant culture. It’s so tied into everyday life. It’s the fabric of those cities and they are just as important here. People have to go to restaurants. People have to go out, they have to socialize. Restaurants provide that space. This is what cities are all about. Without them you’re just a prisoner of your own life.

What about in Baltimore?
WM: It’s going to be stronger—absolutely going to be stronger—that often happens in times of adversity. Restaurants will survive.

What are you looking forward to when Le Comptoir reopens?
WM: I’m looking forward to having everyone back in the restaurant, from working to get ready for service and seeing the space come to life to cleaning down the kitchen at 10 o’ clock and going over to Pen & Quill to have a beer.

RL: I have a hard time not working. I do a bad job at self-care, but I’ve been implementing new systems in my life since we’ve been closed. I hope to create better boundaries so I can be a better boss and more sustainable in my job when we reopen. But I also look forward to seeing the whole dining room filled with candles, especially in the fall when it gets a little bit darker and when everyone walks in. It’s so cozy and beautiful when the space is all lit up.

While La Cuchara chef-owner Ben Lefenfeld is exhausted from working long days, he’s grateful to be busy. “We’re all tired from carrying lots of heavy things and large batches of food,” he says, “but we’re also really happy to have something to do.”

As restaurateurs reinvent their business models, Lefenfeld, along with his wife, Amy, and brother, Jake, have decided to broaden their Basque Country-focused concept and offer prepared foods spanning the globe, from peanut noodles to spicy coconut curry. They have also launched a virtual grocery store featuring basic, but now sometimes hard-to-find, grocery items like sugar, yeast, fresh garlic, and even toilet paper and latex gloves. This week, says Lefenfeld, “We are adding a bunch of seeds to our list, including some heirloom tomato seeds.”

When there is downtime, he and Amy go mushroom hunting with their bull mastiff, Bella, and binge watch FX Networks’ Baskets. “Revamping our business model has had me using the Peloton even less than I usually do because I’m so exhausted,” says Lefenfeld. “I keep telling my parents I’m going to drop it off for them at their house in Columbia.”

Why did you decide to reinvent your business model this way?
The first week-and-a-half to two weeks, we operated with to-go food that was normal La Cuchara food, but I’m not happy with how La Cuchara food travels. When you’re talking about croquettes and things coming off the wood grill, it’s not conducive to being brought home. That was coupled with some of our guests asking for toilet paper, flour, and other items that we don’t typically sell, but we are doing it because these are good clientele trying to support us. We basically sat down and said, ‘We’ve identified that there’s a need in the immediate community for people to go out and procure basic staples,’ and we needed to rethink our business model, including the markup. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t charging a luxury price for the curbside pickup but adding it as a resource instead.

So how is the new model supporting your staff?
We are trying to keep people employed. All the orders have a 10-percent gratuity added. Since day one that’s been going to our hourly staff, along with a percentage of gift card sales, so up until this point we’ve been able to pay our hourly staff a fairly decent wage. In the first four weeks, we distributed $25,000 to hourly staff members.

“At a place like La Cuchara, where the happy hour is very popular and people like to crowd around the bar, we don’t even know if there’s still going to be a desire for that experience.” —Ben Lefenfeld

What does it feel like to walk into the restaurant without guests or most of your staff?
Just to set ourselves up for this, we’ve had to move refrigeration around. We’ve had to come up with a whole system of how we pack bags and we’re truly shocked at how many [regulars] order from us—people with the same first and last name who order on the same day. It has been extremely complicated and outside of our wheelhouse, so we’ve had to figure out ways to double check ourselves and make sure we are accurate.

What will La Cuchara look like when things reopen?
The biggest question is what the rules will be when we are allowed to reopen, because at a place like La Cuchara, where something like the happy hour is very popular and people like to crowd around the bar, we are not going to be able to offer that experience. We don’t know if there’s even going to be a desire for that experience. When we are allowed to reopen, we might continue to do a partial marketplace, so people have that as a resource. It just depends on what is needed at the time.

How are you staying inspired as a chef?
It’s a guilty pleasure being able to cook whatever food I want. That is the one thing that is keeping me going at this point, figuring out what comfort food to make and being able to run with it and offer it at an affordable price. I’ve made jerk chicken and tamales. This week we’ll have lobster bisque and smoked duck breast. It has been fun to look through cookbooks.

Any suggestions for the home cook on getting inspired?

I love going on the internet and researching dishes. Say you want to make tamales, like we are making this week. There are so many different approaches to every dish. You don’t need to stick to one recipe, although you do need to be cognizant of how combining different components can impact the final outcome. But it’s really important to do research and have fun with it and get different perspectives on how to approach a different dish.

“A lot of daily life revolves around the dinner table, but that dinner table isn’t always at your house.”

What items should everyone have in their pantry?
Pasta and rice because they’re so versatile. You should have great olive oil, and I love to have conservas (tinned fish) at my house. I just ordered anchovies for myself from Despaña in New York, though they’re pretty pricey. Whether you’re getting anchovies or mussels in escabeche, it’s all shelf stable, fished at the peak of its freshness, and sustainable. And it’s super high-quality if you’re buying the right stuff.

It’s ironic that your last new concept, The Hot Dry, which closed in October, was centered around the food of the Hubei province of China, which is where Wuhan is located.
It’s just a crazy, crazy coincidence, and it would have been tough to operate a restaurant inspired by the Wuhan region of China throughout this pandemic. It was expensive to get out of that lease when we did and we did pay a lot of money to get out of it, but it would have been really hard to try to operate another set of staff.

“It’s just a crazy, crazy coincidence, and it would have been tough to operate a restaurant inspired by the Wuhan region of China throughout this pandemic.”

What changes need to happen in hospitality?
There needs to be a rethinking of the labor model, meaning revenues need to be distributed more evenly between the front-of-house and back-of-house staff. Tips would not be accepted but prices would have to go up—that’s just one way it could be attacked. Some restaurants have been doing it for a while now, but we are not in a position to be able to do it. Still, it’s something that’s important to the industry.

Also, across the board, restaurants need to try to focus on the needs of their community, rather than the dream of what the owner-chef wants to cook. Just because you specialize in Mediterranean cuisine or have a fancy restaurant, you might not be in a situation or a demographic that really values that.

Are you thinking about what will be on La Cuchara’s menu when you reopen? I’ve been doing lots of research and there are a lot of things in the pipeline. I’m starting to work on testing here, but for the most part, I’m just really excited to get the staff and guests back in here, whom we miss.

“Across the board, restaurants need to try to focus on the needs of their community, rather than the dream of what the owner-chef wants to cook.”

Why do restaurants matter?
Restaurants are really special gathering places in people’s lives to celebrate, and also where they go to unwind and commiserate. A lot of daily life revolves around the dinner table, but that dinner table isn’t always at your house. Every morning I still walk in, turn the lights on, and look at the 86 board [items that have sold out] expecting that there will be things crossed off from the night before. It’s one of those things you can’t shake.

What do you think Baltimore’s culinary landscape will look like post-pandemic?
Out of the Great Depression came The New Deal and a lot of innovation, this is something that my wife Amy has brought up several times. I think that out of the coronavirus you’re going to see a little bit of a renaissance, not just in the restaurant, but in industries across the board. You’re going to see people thinking about different ways to approach the business of owning a restaurant and it’s going to change the overall landscape for the better.

Like all hospitality professionals, veteran restaurateurs Tony Foreman and Chef Cindy Wolf are grappling with the aftermath of the closing of their beloved restaurants during the pandemic.

While it’s been challenging, they have been making the best of the situation from their respective Roland Park homes. Foreman is reimagining the wine menu at Charleston and spending time with his family. Wolf is cooking up a storm in her state-of-the-art kitchen and doing ad-hoc cooking videos for her legions of fans.

Both are eagerly awaiting the day they can reopen Charleston, Cinghiale, and Bar Vasquez in Harbor East, as well as Petit Louis and Johnny’s in Roland Park.

“I believe that there will be restaurants that go out of business, and I feel sad about that,” says Wolf. “I have to do what I do, so somehow, some way, we will reopen. I don’t know if that’s pie in the sky, but I will not allow this to not happen—it has to happen.”

How are you?
Tony Foreman: There’s plenty of existential threat on the business and our livelihood as a family, but the sudden big chunk of family time and the chance to just prepare food for the people who are in my house and to just worry about homework, learning to ride the bike, do nature walks in a really wonderful neighborhood, and do stuff that we don’t ordinarily have time for has been really wonderful.

Cindy Wolf: I’m used to being alone, I’m just not used to being home alone for this many hours a day. I’m used to being at the restaurant 12 hours a day, so my home time is maybe an hour and then sleeping and going to work the next day. But thank goodness I have a beautiful home to live in and no one on our staff has gotten sick.

On the last night of service before the shutdown it just didn’t feel right. It was hushed—the laughter, the joy, the excitement, all of the good things about being in a restaurant were all sucked out of the room. —Cindy Wolf

What was that final night of service at the restaurants like?
TF: We had the very strong feeling the governor was going to shut us down. When he did, I was of two minds. The first thought was, ‘Let’s do something to generate income and at least keep some people working.’ We formulated a plan and immediately responded by having takeout for our guests on Monday and Tuesday.

I had a long conversation with [Petit Louis executive chef] Chris Scanga the day before. He was concerned about being the guy who would go to work and take the virus home to his family—that hit home with me. I slept on it and thought, ‘In good conscience, can I ask these people to come to work when this thing is still ramping up?’ We don’t know what it is or how bad it’s going to be. Are we contributing to it just by doing a to-go business in the name of keeping people employed? I called Cindy and she agreed.

What was the last night of service at Charleston like specifically?
CW: When I saw my waiters in the dining room wearing gloves and my runners wearing gloves and [maître d’] Peter [Keck] walking around—he wasn’t doing anything but sanitizing doorknobs—I was like, ‘This is just not right. This is a restaurant.’ Of course, it should be sanitary, but this is heartbreaking for me to see my waiters walking around with gloves and being scared to walk to tables. I was like, ‘What are we doing? Why are we open? This is not how you operate a restaurant.’ From my kitchen, I can see into the dining room and it just didn’t feel right. It was hushed—the laughter, the joy, the excitement, all of the good things about being in a restaurant were all sucked out of the room.

My ability to fry things in whatever cast iron is lying around has been rehomed from my great grandmother Annie Ross’s kitchen—she was Miss North Carolina 1910. —Tony Foreman

What kinds of things have you been cooking at home?
TF: [My 6-year-old daughter], Del, loves fish and so does my wife, Katie. Two nights a week we have some kind of fish. We got really beautiful yellowfin tuna through work and a nice Scottish salmon. When asparagus are around it’s easy—it’s salmon and asparagus. I also made a fried chicken sandwich for Del. It was super tasty with sprouts and crunchy veggies piled on it. My ability to fry things in whatever cast iron is lying around has been rehomed from my great grandmother Annie Ross’s kitchen—she was Miss North Carolina 1910.

Chef Wolf, from the looks of Instagram, it seems like you’re making a lot of great meals at home.
CW: I love food, even if I’m just cooking for myself. If I have leftovers, I give them to someone who works for me. It makes me happy. When we had a sense that something bad was about to happen, I bought chicken and we broke it down and put it on our freezer in small packages at Charleston. I went to the grocery store and, for the first time in my life, I bought frozen vegetables.

What I have dictates what I cook. My farm in Ohio is just starting out. The salesperson sent me an email saying, ‘We want to send you a box as a gift.’ It was filled with radishes, potatoes, microgreens, and baby parsnips. That really improved my home cooking. In the beginning of this, I ate a lot of chicken. I had some Brabander, it’s an incredible piece of cheese. I brought home a duck breast from Charleston and made magret and ate that for three days. I also got a delivery from Eddie’s. I told them I wanted rack of lamb but didn’t want them to French [cut] it. The meat between the bones on the rack, when left on and roasted properly, is the best part of the rack meat. Between the bones can be so tender and has so much fat surrounding it.

You’ve been posting lots of cooking videos. Why did you decide to make them?
CW: I want to share. I want to teach. I teach every day at work. I’ve always wanted to have my own cooking show.

Any cooking tips for those of us staring blankly into our pantry wondering what’s for dinner?
CW: Reach into the past. All cultures have peasant cooking—all of these old rice and bean dishes. Make things with flour like empanadas—which are made with flour, fat, and water—or pasta. Learn how to make pasta if you can get your hands on flour. Get an inexpensive hand-rolling pasta machine on Amazon. Or boil a potato, mash it, and add ground beef and any spices you like—saffron, chili powder, cayenne, salt, pepper—and add an egg. It’s as good cold as it is hot. Look for old world recipes from French cooking, Mexican cooking, American food, Spanish, and Middle Eastern. Many of those dishes slow cook on the back of stove all day long and make the house smell great.

What will be on the menu at Charleston when you return?
CW: Every day I write things down for the menu, but it’s so seasonal. I have almost an entire notebook filled with either a piece of an idea or something that inspired me. I’ve been hanging out a lot with chef [Paul] Bocuse, I have a lot of his cookbooks, and Anne Willan. I just keep writing, but I don’t know when we are opening. It makes me happy to be with the cookbooks and at least have the ideas. One or two days before we open, when I bring food product in is when we will make the final decisions. I also know people will want the lobster soup and fried oysters—it won’t be a 100-percent new menu because I am here to make people happy.

Will you make changes to any of the other menus?
TF: We are working on a very different presentation and interpretation of the wine list in the cellar at Charleston—now is a chance to do it. We’re going to think about the different restaurants—each one has a pretty pure truth that it’s chasing. I want to make sure that we are as true to those things as we can be. We have the percolation time and I’m going to use it.

What do you miss about being in the restaurants?
TF: The way that our guests rely on the solidity and the care of our team from back door to front door—whether they know that or not. I like that, not just being dependable but being a dependably good piece of people’s lives in a complicated and stressful world. To know that you can go somewhere and you’re going to feel cared for.

Smaller very hand-crafted, curated, and cultivated experiences will be less and less and the attraction to creating those things is going to be less and less—there’s just too much risk. —Tony Foreman

Will restaurants survive?
TF: They are going to be changed. Things will continue to tilt in favor of chains and larger scale places. Smaller very hand-crafted, curated, and cultivated experiences will be less and less and the attraction to creating those things is going to be less and less—there’s just too much risk.

What are you looking forward to when you reopen?
TF: I’m looking forward to that first family meal with our staff. I’ve already told them I will make them a nice supper before we open and I will bring them wine from my cellar, and we will have a nice time.

I walk into that empty restaurant and it’s hard. I miss my guys. [Daytime prep cook] Hubaldo has worked for me since we’ve had Savannah—that’s 23 years. I will not walk into Charleston again until I can start to operate that restaurant again. It’s my life. —Cindy Wolf

Chef Wolf, I’ve seen from Instagram that you’ve been back to Charleston a few times.
CW: In the beginning, I went a few times. I did a bit of repair work—someone who works for us had an opportunity to make a little bit of money, so I went down there. Prior to that, I went in a few times in the first few weeks because I wanted to make sure everything was okay. Also, in those first few weeks, we still had some food left. I went four or five times when we were distributing the food. We did a huge distribution to staff the day we closed.

After being in the restaurant just yesterday, my question was, ‘When do we move forward and how do we move forward?’ It’s killing me. I will not walk into Charleston ever again until I can start to operate that restaurant again. It’s my life. I’ve wanted to do this since I was a kid. All I do is think about food. I’m at work many hours a day. When I’m not there, I’m thinking about food. When I go on vacation, I go to eat food. I eat in some of the best restaurants in France and have a glass or two of Champagne at lunch. A walk at lunch and then back to dinner—I live for that. Getting to immerse myself is so inspiring to me.

I walk into that empty restaurant and it’s hard, and I miss my guys. Hubaldo has worked for me since we’ve had Savannah—that’s 23 years. He’s my daytime prep cook. I am thankful every single day for what I do. I look at him and say, ‘Can you believe what we do?’

Why do we need restaurants?
CW: We need restaurants like Petit Louis and all the little neighborhood restaurants. We need places like Charleston so we can dress up and celebrate our anniversary, even if people need to save their coins to go to those restaurants once in a lifetime. I’m certain that whenever we reopen, our waiters will have to wear masks and gloves, which I can’t stand, but if that’s what it takes to open so be it. We can’t live without restaurants.

While Canton’s Alma Cocina Latina has transformed itself into a carryout arepa bar, husband-and-wife owners Mark Demshak and Irena Stein have also been focused on helping their back-of-the-house staff, most of whom don’t qualify for benefits, find employment. In addition to working at Alma, four of their staffers are also working in collaboration with Mera Kitchen Collective, a community-driven, food-based cooperative focused on empowerment for refugee and immigrant women.

Using the commercial kitchen at Neopol Smokery, Mera has been providing up to 700 free meals a day for Baltimore communities in need. “It’s one thing to sell food and feel the love and support that you get from of the community,” says Demshak. “What we’ve done with Mera Kitchen and the staff fills the heart.”

I know that several of your staffers have not been able to come into the kitchen to help with carryout. Can you talk about that?
IS: Our executive chef, Karem Barragan, is pregnant. She’s home—she places the orders for the kitchen. And then our sous chef, David Zamudio, who is Venezuelan is stuck in Spain. If we had an executive chef with us, we could do a lot more, but we can’t. Our back-of-the-house kitchen is extremely well-trained by our chefs, so they can run the whole thing beautifully, but we could have more ideas implemented if Karem and David were there.

“Mera Kitchen is now feeding thousands of people. In three weeks, they did 6,300 meals and four of our team players are there during the day.” —Irena Stein

How is your staff doing?
IS: Basically, we have three categories of employees: We have the people who have gone on unemployment, we have the people [with visas] with exceptional talent who cannot get unemployment, and then we have those who don’t have access to any of those benefits.

We are trying to avoid hunger among anyone. The situation here reminds me very much of the Venezuelan reality of no food, no toilet paper, no medical assistance. I never expected the U.S. to be on the same page as Venezuela, but this is so familiar for me.

This was a little easier for me to handle because I already know my priorities. Priority number one is that everyone has to be fed. The people who have the least possibility of income are the people whom we will support the most—those people on the hourly wages without access to services. Their children have to be fed. We employ them, rotating them in the kitchen with takeout and preparing the food, and then Mera Kitchen is now feeding thousands of people. In three weeks, they did 6,300 meals and four of our team players are there during the day. Between what we have going at Alma and what Mera offers them, they are fine. It’s a huge relief—that means they have food on the table.

Mera is based on a lot of Syrian and Eritrean food. Now, they have included our people. So you have Central American food, too. So these migrants are feeding the hungry in Baltimore, which I find fascinating. Our Mexican and Guatemalan guys have done Mexican food—they are all taking initiatives rotating the things that they do. And our chef who is stranded in Spain used to work on a cruise ship. He is giving them advice on how to cook for hundreds of people a day. You have all these nationalities serving this population in Cherry Hill.

“Mera is based on a lot of Syrian and Eritrean food. Now, they have included our people. So you have Central American food, too. So these migrants are feeding the hungry in Baltimore, which I find fascinating.”—Irena Stein

Did you have a relationship with Mera Kitchen Collective before this?
IS: We collaborated in the past doing Syrian and Venezualan food, which is perfect because we have a small Syrian community in Venuzuela. Two years ago, we did a collaboration “Damascus Meets Caracas.” [Co-founder] Emily [Lerman] and I became very close friends—we think alike in so many ways of supporting community. Alma and Mera Kitchen are just a natural combination. When this came along, I said to her, ‘If you ever have room for more people because your community is growing, we have these people who really need work.’ She said, ‘Absolutely,’ and now we have four guys from our kitchen working there every day.

MD: What’s interesting is that the people Emily was employing before were refugees. She was employing them to give them a livelihood—they weren’t necessarily trained chefs or line cooks. They didn’t necessarily have experience in catering, so what she found with our guys there is that it raised the level of the kitchen. Their payroll has been reduced significantly because they are moving faster, so she has more money to spend on food.

IS: Once this is over, she’s going to send her prospective team to Alma to train for a few months. To see these Latino guys working with the Syrian chefs and this other woman from Eritrea, you have these cultures that are completely different existing with no language—just sign language—and it creates understanding of other cultures and other mentalities. I love the humanity of it. All of these things have always mattered to us, but to have it in full display with this collaboration has been really wonderful. The guys are so appreciative of being able to work over there and every dollar becomes something important. As long as no one goes hungry, we have won.

“What we’ve done with Mera Kitchen and the staff fills the heart.” —Mark Demshak

How is your carryout going at Alma?
MD: Right now, we are functioning much more like an arepa bar you’d find in Caracas.

IS: The community has been lovely. I know we could be making more money if the chefs were around, but we do what we are doing the best we can. Some people are coming from 25 minutes away and we don’t want them to have a bad experience, so we are giving them instructions on heating the arepas. Some people will tell their building or their neighbors and they come on behalf of several families, which is so wonderful. We’ve also added cocktails and sangria.

Did you consider not doing carryout?
MD: We did consider not doing carryout for a split second. We thought let’s at least try it—we have things that you can carry out. If we didn’t have arepas, it would be much more difficult, because we don’t have our chefs here. Our line cooks are really extraordinary.

IS: It’s the legacy of [former executive chef] Enrique Limardo. Our executive chef and the chef had such a good experience learning under him.

“As long as no one goes hungry, we have won.” —Irena Stein

What will happen when Alma reopens for full service?
IS: We can’t answer clearly. We are concerned that it will be hard to have the restaurant be as full as it should be. [We don’t know what this will] mean to the city, the economy, and people going to restaurants. We have to see if we can do the menu the same way.

MD: We will continue to do take-out once we reopen. We’ve set it up in such a way that it’s a feasible business. At this point, it will be another revenue stream, so we will continue that.

Ashish Alfred, owner of Duck Duck Goose in Fells Point, as well as Duck Duck Goose and George’s Chophouse in Bethesda, has long shared his harrowing story of drug addiction. Ironically, he says, in some ways getting sober—exactly six years ago this month—has helped him cope with the COVID crisis.

“People in sobriety are almost better armed for this,” says Alfred. “We are somewhat accustomed to being with our own thoughts and dealing with those things and processing things.”

Hospitality workers are particularly poised for survival, he says. “Restaurant people are some of the toughest people in the world—we will find a way to get all of our people back to work and we will find a way to come back better than before, though it’s going to be a tough road getting there.”

How are you doing?
What’s really tough is that any time you find a moment of peace, the first thing that crosses your mind is your staff. We do our due diligence to make sure that everyone who works for us is within the letter of the law as far as their immigration status goes, but, in spite of that, people are still able to get forged documents and get hired. I worry about that group of people very, very much and it gives me a very uneasy, almost nauseating feeling to think about how these people are getting through. These people have worked so hard, be it a year or eight years, to build a life for themselves. For them to not know where their next meal is coming from is awful.

You’ve had your struggles, you’ve been brought to your knees from drug addiction—has that steeled you to survive this?
I’m not one to preach to anyone, but I would give caution that sooner or later, we will come out on the other side of this. If people don’t take steps to care for themselves in the right way during this downtime, it’s going to be very difficult to transition back to regular life at the end of all this. Sleeping all day is not the answer, drinking all day is not the answer. My two cents that I’ve given my staff is to try to find some sense of normalcy.

Everyone I know in my sober network has been doing pretty well, though I’m sure that’s not the case for everyone. For me, it knocked me out of my routine—it messed up my eating, sleeping, and gym schedule. For the first six or eight days, I was unreachable. I was hardly eating. I was lying in bed all day and sleeping. I was super-depressed.

“If people don’t take steps to care for themselves in the right way during this downtime, it’s going to be very difficult to transition back to regular life at the end of all this. Sleeping all day is not the answer, drinking all day is not the answer.”
—Ashish Alfred

I know you emptied your inventory after you closed and gave the food to your staff. That must have been such a difficult day.
It was heartbreaking. I cried in front of the staff. I didn’t know what to tell them. These people have come to me for everything, ‘Can you help me fill out this paper for my daughter’s school?’ Of if they buy a car, they want to bring the car to me so I can see it. It was an indescribable event.

You’ve been outspoken about encouraging consumers not to use dining apps, even making an Instagram video with a plea to consumers. Can you talk about that?
Restaurants in Baltimore and D.C. have done well because we’ve come together as family to support each other. I’m not in a position where I can donate a lot of money to a whole bunch of people, but if I can somehow make a difference and save restaurants from paying super high commissions, then that’s a good day at the office.

[Dining app companies] are saying, ‘Hey help us help restaurants. Order from them now to help them out.’ They’ll say no delivery fees, well that does nothing for the restaurant. I’d like to see them waive their fees until we see our way out of this thing.

You haven’t been offering carryout, but I know you plan to start this week. Why the change of heart?

We’re going to try to do takeout, and, because I’ve made such a stink of it, were going to try to be open without the apps. We will launch this Friday at all three restaurants. People need to realize that the money restaurants are making from carryout is just to support their staff. No one is making money. People are doing this just to keep their staff afloat.

What kinds of things will be on the carryout menu at Duck Duck Goose?

We are going to do foods that will travel well and we will include a set of instructions for heating. We will definitely have our foie gras tournedos. Nothing makes quarantine better than foie gras. We will also have risotto and zero-proof cocktails for people who are tired of drinking or people who are tired of drinking soda water.

“I have learned from this that I am not my restaurants, my restaurants are not me. Life and things will be okay. That’s not what anyone wants to hear right now, but it’s important to remember that.”

What do you think the landscape will look like when this is over?
I had a dinner scheduled at the James Beard house in May, which was cancelled. I had the opportunity to talk to their director, Izabela Wojcik, and we talked for 30 minutes about what restaurants will look like at the end of this. I am sure it will be a little while before people are eager to pile on top of each other into a place, or wait in an eight-by-eight foyer while they are on a 45-minute wait for a table, but I’m sure we will find a way.

Will people leave the profession?
If you’ve been a restauranteur for five, 10, or 20 years, you’re not going to say, ‘I’m going to be an accountant.’ No, you’re going to go right back to restaurants. People will always need a place to go eat.

What have you learned from all of this?

The liberating thing that might be important for other restaurateurs to hear is that this is a very busy business—we give all of ourselves to this, whether you’ve got a bar that serves wings and pizza or a fine-dining restaurant. If you’re in the restaurant business, it really takes up a lot of your time, but I have learned from this that I am not my restaurants, my restaurants are not me. Life and things will be okay. That’s not what anyone wants to hear right now, but it’s important to remember that.

What’s the first thing you’re going to do when this is over?

I’m going to hug my mother. And put a post-dated paycheck in the hands of every single person who works for me.

Like many area restaurateurs, Clavel co-owners Lane Harlan and Carlos Raba have recently reinvented the business model at their James Beard-nominated taqueria with carryout and curbside pickup due to the COVID crisis. They’ve even gone so far as to give their grab-and-go business a new name, Pisa & Corre, which was inspired by the convenience stores in Raba’s hometown of Sinaloa, Mexico.

“I used to go to a little drive-thru market in my little city in Mexico and it was called Pisa y Corre, which translates to the Stop and Run,” Raba says. “You could go buy beer and groceries and drive through. So I said, ‘Why don’t we do tacos kits?’ People need a meal that not only is affordable, but filling.”

In keeping with this idea, the team also decided to start serving burritos. “You can eat half one day and half another,” Raba adds. “They have a lot of flavor, they are as good the next day, and they make people smile. With Pisa & Corre, we’ve created a totally different business. We are innovators fighting for Baltimore and our community, and making the best of it with what we can.”

It seems as though you’re doing really well with your new carryout model and selling out each week. How’s it going?
Lane Harlan: The first week was traumatic. We were open for brunch with a skeleton crew the day before—we knew it was coming. On March 16, when Governor Hogan closed restaurants and bars, we literally spent 24 hours brainstorming this new business model that we call Pisa & Corre. We didn’t have a website built yet, we put a menu online and people could call in their orders, but you can only process as fast as the speed of answering the phone and confirming payment and then people were showing up without having ordered.

We thought our online website would fix everything, but it created new obstacles. It allowed everyone to order at the same time, which created a backlog and people were having to wait two-and-a-half hours. That single day ended up being the most amount of sales we’ve ever done, and that was with less than 10 people working. We had to apologize to a lot of people that first night. When things have gotten mixed up, we’ve offered refunds, and most people declined to take them.

So, what is working for you?
LH: What is working is that we’ve increased our prices by 20 percent in order to send weekly money to our non-working staff—and not one customer has complained. The tip pool is distributed evenly to nearly everyone, including the working staff on the days that they aren’t working. We laid off people who chose to be laid off so they could apply for unemployment. [Some are opting] out of the tip pool to provide for the people who need it the most—if you’re benefiting from the stimulus, you might not need the tip pool money.

No one should profit during this crisis. Individuals and the businesses themselves shouldn’t be profiting. The people in need are our number-one concern, and we will be endlessly creative about how to keep these people paying their bills and keep milk in their fridge. The speed of the government is slow, and people don’t have time to wait for money to feed their families.

“We are innovators fighting for Baltimore and our community and making the best of it with what we can.”

I noticed you’ve been selling T-shirts, too.
LH: People are buying merchandise like never before—they know it’s going to a tip pool. I went to a local screen printer and spent money on hundreds of shirts and sold out. People truly care and keep buying them.

So, are you making the math work in terms of being able to make ends meet?
LH: The numbers are working because we have higher averages for what people are spending and buying in bulk, and we have less staff. For example, we’re selling six margaritas in bulk at a time. It’s an amazing hustle that doesn’t feel super sustainable. We can afford our payroll and people are being paid right now at least what they were making before, but we don’t know how long this is sustainable. We are in serious survival mode.

How else are you supporting your staff?
LH: We just hosted a back of house meeting with a translator with Maryland CASA. We want to help them get resources, learn how to get unemployment, or get help if there’s a home situation with abuse because children are at home. The flow of information is incredibly important. They deserve the same flow of information as the front of the house.

Any tips on getting carryout? I’ve seen the sold-out signs.
Carlos Raba: The best times to pick up are between noon and 4 p.m. when it’s slow. You can order a burrito at noon and heat it later. It will be perfectly fine. We sell out because there are so many tickets waiting. It’s not that we don’t have the food, but we can’t process more than 150 tickets.

“Why do sushi chefs have tip jars but the people who work in the front of the house make hundreds of dollars in cash? How can we bring those people in the back making tortillas and chopping to the front?”

How are you unwinding?
LH: My first day off since March 15 was March 29. We went on a hike and didn’t work at all. I bought a trampoline to jump on every morning.

CR: I do Jiu-Jitsu in my basement and exercise with my wife, Claudia, and spend the time outside doing stuff we didn’t have time to do. I’m embracing time with my kids and I’m able to put my kids to bed at 9 and then have a margarita with Claudia.

Lane, how are you sustaining your other businesses, Fadensonnen and W.C. Harlan that you co-own with your husband, Matthew?
LH: W.C. Harlan and Fadensonnen are closed. We opened up our wine storage room and created a bottle shop called Angels Ate Lemons. We’re doing wine deliveries within a three-mile radius and offering curbside pickup on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Right now, I’m moving inventory and liquidizing—it’s keeping the manager at W.C. Harlan on salary.

“You don’t have to be wealthy to survive a crisis—if you have the support of numbers of people in your community, then you will weather the storm.”

What will you take with you that will stick once this is over?
LH: The divide between back and front of the house is going to shrink. We are making moves to level the playing field and change the perception. I’ve been working in restaurants since I was 15, but I try not to be a product of that environment. It took me a long time to question why people working in a kitchen make so much less than people making cocktails. Why do sushi chefs have tip jars but the people who work in the front of the house make hundreds of dollars in cash? How can we bring those people in the back making tortillas and chopping to the front? It’s not the publics job to recognize these truths, it’s my job to make these changes and hope that it trickles down to other restaurants.

CR: It has opened our eyes to the issues in the back and the front of the house. Maybe you have a dishwasher you thought was legal and then all of a sudden, he tells you he isn’t and can’t apply for unemployment. There are probably millions of examples of that in our industry. How can we make it fair? What do people deserve? We are going to start to push our politicians and government. We need to open their eyes about what it’s like to run a small business.

What lessons have you learned from this?
LH: We’ve worked it out in a way that was smart and risky, but we have a dedicated following. Whatever we’ve done in the past is coming back to us right now—it’s a lesson for restaurants who are not involved in the community. It’s a wake up call—if you just stand for profit alone and don’t give that back, you don’t have that safety net. And it’s not coming back to you. You don’t have to be wealthy to survive a crisis—if you have the support of numbers of people in your community, then you will weather the storm.

While some restaurants have temporarily closed for business in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, others, per Governor Larry Hogan’s directive, have gone into survival mode by staying open for curbside and carryout.

To talk about what it’s been like to pursue this new business model, we checked in with Irene Salmon, co-owner of Dylan’s Oyster Cellar in Hampden. In addition to trying to make ends meet, the emotional toll has been toughest, says Salmon.

“We are social people—we are restaurant people,” she says. “We miss our staff and our customers. We are used to seeing 100 people a day. The restaurant is an empty shell—that has been the hardest part for us.”

What has life been like for you and your staff since Governor Hogan closed restaurants and bars?
We are hanging in there. [Two weeks ago] was really wild—we had to totally overhaul our business model and lay off half of our staff. We went from being a thriving business to a failing one overnight. Every restaurant I talk to is in the same position.

From the looks of your social media account, where you and your staff are waving flags and doing Chuck Norris-style kicks as a way of advertising that you are open, it looks like you’re trying to keep it light.
We are trying to have as much fun as we possibly can and put out funny messages on the internet—maybe that’s just an avoidance. We are definitely a ship at sea. To be frank, we are bringing in a third of the income we are used to bringing in—that will only pay for what’s remaining of our payroll and food costs.

We still have $21,000 of fixed expenses—that’s rent, it’s the BGE bill, it’s Comcast, our linen company, and cleaning products, and things like that—and we are sitting on a little bit of savings, which puts us in a better position than other restaurants, but it’s not much without help. We are applying for the Maryland Relief Grant Program—that’s for up to $10,000—but that would only scratch the surface.

I think as people become more cautious and know more people who get sick, it will drop down even more, and also as people worry about their finances. I’m anticipating that. We are trying to find a new norm. It’s like we have fallen into a black hole and need to see what the new normal is.

“We went from being a thriving business to a failing one overnight.”

What changes have you had to make to the menu with this new carryout model?
We’re not doing oysters anymore, which is a shame. They are too perishable, and we don’t have enough business to sustain the volume. This is hurting our distributors and farmers. It’s a whole chain reaction. We are doing a lot of burgers, fries, and catfish sandwiches. We are hoping to sell a fried oyster sandwich. We are trying to differentiate ourselves. Everyone has a burger and fries.

How are you handling your carryout?
We have our little side door set up. People can enter and swipe their own credit cards, and we have their food ready. We change our gloves often and we are constantly sanitizing surfaces. [Three] weeks ago, when the restaurant was open, I was like, ‘There’s no way to maintain this level of cleaning with the volume of people.’ We were thankful that Hogan put the [order] in place—that takes a lot of pressure and guilt off us. The Sunday before he made the announcement, we were like, ‘This is starting to feel too scary.’

Did you offer carryout prior to this?
No, we never allowed carryout food. In fact, people would get angry about it. But when we have a full restaurant, our priority has to be our customers who are seated. Now, I’m thinking that everyone’s wish can come true—and everyone can get their soft crab sandwich to go. I’m hoping soft crab sandwiches can save our restaurant—I’m hoping that maybe the crabs can start shedding their shells a little sooner…

“We are trying to find a new norm. It’s like we have fallen into a black hole and need to see what the new normal is.”

What’s it like being in the empty space?
People are so deprived of human interaction. When that synergy is back, it’s going to be wild. Maybe I took a little bit for granted when we were so busy. At the same time, I’m like, ‘This is the saddest thing to walk into an empty restaurant.’

How is your staff doing?
We are always telling jokes. We have the most awesome staff—even the staff members who are gone are not really gone. We’ve been doing giant group texts. We are restaurant people—this is hard for us emotionally—what we are feeling is grief, and some people have never experienced grief before.