New Jersey Sets Opening Dates for Outdoor Dining
Hair salons and more in stage 2. New Jersey is on track to enter Stage 2 of its coronavirus recovery plan in two weeks, reopening restricted outdoor dining and in-store retail with hair salons and more to open later in June, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday. Outdoor dining, which Connecticut reopened more than a week ago, will be allowed in New Jersey as of June 15, the same day Murphy has said childcare centers can reopen. In-person retail sales can also resume at that point, though each store has to maintain a strict 50 percent capacity in order to stay open. Hair salons and barbershops are slated to reopen the following Monday, on June 22.
All Michigan Restaurants and Bars Can Open
For dine-in service on June 8. Despite a weekend of civil turmoil across the country, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is continuing the process of reopening the state by issuing a new executive order allowing restaurants and bars throughout Michigan to reopen for dine-in service both inside and outdoors on Monday, June 8. The restaurant opening is “subject to capacity limits,” according to a release. The news comes as Whitmer moves the entire state into phase four of her MI Safe Start Plan. When the plan was initially rolled out, people expected that restaurants and bars would only be permitted to open in phase five as the diagram outlined, but that has not been the case. Whitmer estimates that the whole state could reach phase five before the Fourth of July.
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QuickBooks Releases PPP Resource Hub
Adds a loan forgiveness estimator. New to Intuit’s QuickBooks is the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Center, and the latest update adds a loan forgiveness estimator and PPP-specific reports to QuickBooks Online, among other tools. Many tech providers within the accounting space have rapidly added tools to help small businesses cope with business disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, including some pricing relief. Businesses that have applied and received a loan through QuickBooks Capital will also receive access to loan information and documentation, auto populated by the QuickBooks system. Customers who have received their loan from another lender can also use the PPP Center within QuickBooks after manually entering their loan information.
Food Halls Are More Promising Than Ever
As restaurants reopen. In the past three months, restaurants and bars have been forced to close indefinitely, and many have pivoted to takeout and delivery in order to pay the rent and stay afloat. Award-winning, fine-dining establishments have reworked their menus entirely. Other favorites have shuttered for good. But one facet of the industry has remained, surprisingly, largely operational: food halls. Their draw is that they serve as a snapshot of a city’s varied food scene—from a legendary neighborhood banh mi spot to barbecue even locals will wait hours for—all in one place. Their surge in popularity over the past decade has reflected much of what travelers were looking for pre-pandemic: tactile, local food experiences, and an immersive sense of community that could be found with a few swipes and a Google search. But with drastically reduced foot traffic and stay-at-home orders still in place within many major cities, they are now proving to be far more valuable to the small businesses they house than the tourists they were designed for.
Chick-fil-A Modifies Drive-Thru Service
Halts free refills as restaurants reopen. After shutting down for several weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants and businesses across the country are beginning to reopen. Eating at fast-food chains, along with most eateries, will likely look quite different in the months. On Friday, Chick-fil-A released new guidelines and recommendations franchisees should follow as the reopen their dining rooms to customers. Though most locations of the beloved chicken chain have continued to offer drive-thru and to-go service through the health crisis, even those offerings will continue to look a little different in the foreseeable future.
Bourbon Blue Closes after 17 Years
A second coronavirus restaurant shutdown in Manayunk. Bourbon Blue, which helped usher in a new era in Manayunk when it opened by the Manayunk Canal in late 2002, has closed, a victim of the coronavirus pandemic that also claimed the nearby Mad River Bar & Grill two weeks ago. Owner Brendan McGrew, who started as one of the New Orleans-themer’s first line cooks, segued into front-of-house management in 2005, and bought it from Sean Coyle in 2009, told his 29 employees last week. Given the pandemic’s destruction of the restaurant industry, it was a conversation that some saw coming, but it still was emotional “because we’re a family,” he said. “I was looking at the reopening models coming out of this situation, and it just couldn’t work,” said McGrew.”
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Did You Know?
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash suspend service in some cities amid curfews. Uber, Lyft and DoorDash are suspending operations in some cities across the United States in order to comply with curfew orders. Protests continue across the US in response to the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis last week. Many demonstrations across the nation have been peaceful, but violence and looting erupted in some cities over the weekend as groups of protesters clashed with law enforcement officers. As a result, some government officials have implemented curfews for residents. Uber has suspended services in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and parts of Minneapolis, the company said.
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Employee Tip
What to know about stimulus checks via debit card. Millions of Americans have received economic impact payments, or stimulus checks, via direct deposit in their bank accounts. Now, nearly 4 million Americans are being sent stimulus checks by prepaid debit card instead of paper check, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Say what? Yes, if you were expecting a paper check or direct deposit, you may be receiving an unmarked envelope with a stimulus debit card instead. Wondering how to manage these economic impact payment cards, avoid fees and get your cash? Here are answers to common questions.
Bielat Santore & Company – Restaurant Industry Daily Alerts
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Thank you and remember all of the “Restaurant Industry Alerts” and “Thursday Restaurant Rap” interviews can be found at www.123bsc.com/news/. We intend to continue to keep you informed as we all look for an end to this crisis.
How to market your restaurant for sale during the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, it will be challenging to market and sell businesses that have temporarily been shuttered during the pandemic, because valuations are based on historical financial data. However, whether you choose to reopen your business or not, owners can still position them for sale. So, what should you do if you want to sell in the next 6 – 12 months? Contact a good business broker that specializes in the sale of hospitality real estate and businesses. Bielat Santore & Company, Allenhurst, NJ has been brokering such sales for over 40 years and will be able to help you come up with flexible deal structures and capital sources to make a sale possible; call for a free consultation – 732.531.4200.
