Thousands of Dallas service industry workers are facing sudden unemployment in the wake of this week’s mandatory city-wide shutdown of all restaurant dining rooms and bars. And hundreds of thousands more restaurant industry workers around Texas will be out of work as the statewide closure of all restaurant dining rooms went into effect Friday.
According to the Texas Restaurant Association, the restaurant shutdowns in Dallas and Harris counties alone will have a projected loss of up to half a million jobs in the state’s restaurant industry.
“Small restaurants operate with razor thin margins [1 to 2 percent], leaving them highly susceptible to minor impact, let alone catastrophic impact such as the COVID-19 crisis,” according to a report from the association. “The Texas Restaurant Association projects 25 to 30 percent of independent restaurants will close if the reduction in patrons continues.”
There are 1.4 million people employed in the Texas restaurant industry, and with restrictions in place, 1 million of those jobs could be lost, the report said.
Many restaurants are frantically restructuring staff and menus to offer takeout and delivery services that are still permitted under the mandate, but without dining room service, most have had to cut or furlough staff.
On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of workers employed by Headington Companies, the group behind The Joule and a dozen bars or restaurants throughout Dallas including Sassetta, CBD Provisions and Commissary, were terminated via email, according to Central Track.
"We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation in which our hotel, restaurants and other locations are no longer able to conduct normal operations or, in some cases, remain open. Accordingly, we have no choice but to lay off a significant portion of our workforce, and because most of our employees are already at home we regret that we are unable to deliver this message in person," said the email, which was obtained by Central Track.
Employees currently enrolled in health benefits were notified that they would be covered through March 31.
Oddfellows and Revelers Hall in Oak Cliff laid off nearly 50 employees Tuesday, according to a Facebook post from owner Jason Roberts.
“These are not only our teammates, but our extended family. We're now at our laptops helping them apply for unemployment this morning, but it's obviously a nerve wracking time,” he said in his post. “Even if the industry came back online next week, the return would probably be a trickle due to heightened worries, so we're all in unchartered waters.”
Steven Danby, general manager of Sprezza in Oak Lawn, said the neighborhood Italian restaurant had to lay off more than a dozen employees Tuesday and is now operating with a 4-person staff.
“I was really honest with all of them. I don’t think there’s any sugar-coating a situation like that. I apologized. And they’re aware of the situation in the industry, so they understood, but it’s still a really hard thing to do,” Danby said. “I had to lay off someone I’ve known for 10 years, and it was the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my career. I called my mom after.”
Danby and his skeletal team are keeping the restaurant open by offering a takeout and delivery menu, although he’s not sure how long they’ll be able to sustain that model.
Restaurateur Jim Baron, who owns Blue Mesa and Tacos and Tequila, said he had to lay off about 90 percent of the employees at his four restaurants, including a third of management positions.
All four establishments are offering curbside pickup and free delivery, but with the difference in revenue, Baron said he’s unsure how long they will be able to stay open.
“Instead of doing $30,000 in a day, yesterday we did $500,” he said. “I don’t think people grasp the impact. ... Our industry is one of the biggest employers, and over the past few days we’ve let go of most of our employees. They can’t get a job anywhere. There are low-income people that are not going to be able to pay their credit cards and are not going to be able to pay rent. It’s a very difficult situation. I had to let them go. I can’t pay them.”
Baron, who is a member of the Texas chapter of the American Business Immigration Coalition and has been outspoken about supporting immigrant labor in the restaurant business, said he is concerned about what will happen to immigrants who lose their jobs during this pandemic.
“They’re completely neglected. They just get further pushed down the line. Now immigrants are competing for the same bread that other people are. More neglected. More ignored,” he said.
Despite their own financial woes and uncertain futures, many restaurateurs and chefs quickly created support systems to aid their peers who are now out of work.
Some restaurants that shuttered or significantly minimized their operations are giving boxes of leftover produce and food items to laid-off employees. Others are selling gift cards with 100 percent of the funds going directly to staff that lost their jobs.
One local nonprofit, Get Shift Done, created a donation fund and is securing jobs for unemployed service workers at local nonprofits that are now facing a higher demand for hunger relief. The organization partnered with North Texas Food Bank to employ hospitality workers in place of volunteers and plans to “serve over 1 million meals per week while providing more than $250,000 of wages per week to over 1,000 workers per week,” according to its website.
Another newly minted nonprofit of a similar name, Shift Dallas, which is made up of local hospitality professionals volunteering their time, is surveying restaurant industry workers on what their needs are and will be collecting funds to disperse to those affected.
As of Thursday afternoon, the survey had more than 400 responses, said Shift Dallas volunteer and former Dallas Morning News restaurant critic Leslie Brenner.
“We’re trying to understand who needs help, how many people need help and what kind of help they need,” Brenner said. “Part of the survey is what percent of their income was tips? How much food do they have? Do they have health insurance?”
Brenner said Shift Dallas is also working through ways to help restaurants keep their doors open.
“There are plenty of restaurants that are actually closing temporarily. And even if they reopen, it’s going to be very tough. Most people who live on tips don’t have savings to speak of. Many of them don’t have health insurance,” she said. “I think the needs are going to be very great. People are going to need food. People are going to not be able to pay their rent. I think people are going to need all kinds of financial assistance. I think we just really don’t know the extent of it quite yet.”
Cheyenne Carr, a 25-year-old server at Alamo Drafthouse in Richardson, was told that her position was furloughed indefinitely and that she’d be without pay.
“It’s been honestly miserable,” Carr said. “I’m scared for how I’m going to pay my bills and stuff. I don’t have any savings, which is my own personal issue, but it’s just scary. That income is just not there anymore and that’s really scary. I’ve been applying to jobs, but so are thousands of other workers that were in the restaurant business and out of jobs now. So I’m not surprised I haven’t gotten any calls back yet.”
Carr said her apartment is up for renewal this month and she’s unsure of how she will afford to keep living there. She plans to file for unemployment and continue her job search.
For Rodney Byers, a 49-year-old waiter at Ocean Prime in Uptown, the money he made in tips during his last shift Saturday night before the restaurant shut its dining room down is now all the cash he and his wife have.
“We looked at the bank account and we’re counting the days,” he said.
Once bills are paid for the month, they will have just under $40 left. But Byers considers himself one of the lucky ones.
“I work for a company that is pretty financially strong. We are sure that our restaurant will reopen when it is allowed to do so,” he said.
In the meantime, he is filing for unemployment and isn’t sure what he will do for work or if he’ll be able to secure another job.
“This is all I’ve ever done. And most restaurant support jobs I feel like I’m qualified for are all on hold,” said Byers, who has worked in restaurants since he was 12 years old. “Unfortunately, in the restaurant industry we usually don’t have any benefits, and it’s a cash and carry business. We love what we do but it’s not the safest business to be in. But we choose it anyway.”
Byers said he isn’t worried about getting sick and initially didn’t understand why restaurants could no longer serve guests if they were taking necessary precautions, but he has changed his thinking.
“At first I was angry. What do they expect us to do? But I got a phone call from some of our dear guests who come in and they’re in their 70s and 80s. And I thought, what would happen if they were to get hurt because we had opened? And I really understood that it’s necessary right now, because if something had happened to those two, I don’t know what I would have done,” he said.
Byers said he finds comfort in the fact that he’s not alone in his situation and he’s confident the restaurant industry and those who have dedicated themselves to it will pull through.
“It’s a small sacrifice for us because we’re going to make it.”
