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March 17, 2020

Tough to swallow: Can NH restaurants, bars survive shutdown?

PHOTO | New Haven BIZ
By Michael C. Bingham

Claire Criscuolo beat Ned Lamont to the punch.

Even before the governor announced Monday morning that all Connecticut restaurants and bars, as well as gyms and movie theaters, were ordered to close their doors indefinitely as of 8 p.m. Monday night, the namesake of downtown landmark Claire’s Corner Copia had decided to shut down the popular vegetarian Valhalla at the corner of Chapel and College streets at 7 p.m. the same evening.

“We made the decision before they [the state] did,” said Criscuolo, who opened her popular eatery in 1975 with her husband Frank, who died in 2011. “We discussed it [with employees], and I said that by staying open we’d potentially be taking money over lives.”

So they decided collectively to close one of the Elm City’s most popular eateries — even before being forced to after Lamont decided to throw in with the governors of New York, New Jersey and others Monday in shutting down much of the entertainment and hospitality industry for an indefinite period.

(The order allows Connecticut restaurants and bars to continue to offer meals for takeout and curbside pickup during the interregnum, but an informal canvassing of Elm City eateries on Monday afternoon suggested that few eateries planned to do so.)

It’s a major industry in New Haven and Connecticut, and impossible to calculate the economic consequences. The Connecticut Restaurant Association (CRA) has more than 8,500 member businesses across the state who collectively employ more than 160,000 workers — as much as 10 percent of the state’s workforce. As of Monday evening, almost all of those are out of a job.

“In recent days we’ve watched as large corporations and other businesses have made decisions about telecommuting and other ideas to keep employees home,” wrote CRA Executive Director Scott Dolch in a letter to Lamont on Saturday, before the shutdown was announced. “In the restaurant industry, our employees cannot work from home.”

“This stinks for everybody who isn’t getting paid,” Criscuolo acknowledges. “But we don’t have a choice.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

’We’re going to lose money,’ says Claire’s Criscuolo (pictured in more bountiful times). ‘God willing, we’re not going to lose lives.’

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said the pain felt by businesses affected by the state-mandated closings pales before their potential as public gathering spaces to unwittingly accelerate the spread of the contagion.

“We’ve had discussions with some local banks about providing loans for businesses to get through this time,” said Elicker, although he did not offer specifics. “It’s a lot more difficult to start a new business than to keep a business running. It’s our priority to make sure we’re supporting our local businesses as best we can.”

On Monday evening Lamont announced that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) would make available disaster-relief loans of up to $2 million for small businesses in every industry impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. 

Also on Monday, economic-development directors of New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford, Stamford and Waterbury met with David Lehman, commissioner of the state’s Department of Economic & Community Development, to review short- and long-term strategies to mitigate and manage the economic impact on cities.

According to New Haven Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli, “Cities will next roll out surveys and information concerning two U.S. Department of Commerce programs, SBA’s low-interest loan program and [the city of New Haven’s] economic-injury program,” he said, with “more efforts in the pipeline.”

“We now have a new and unprecedented challenge and we will get through it together,” Piscitelli added.

“There are no easy answers,” Elicker added. “The city doesn’t have a lot of money we can dole out right now, so we have to work with our state and federal partners to help support businesses.”

As for Criscuolo, she can look ahead at the prospect of brighter days for the 45-year-old business that has consumed most of her adult life. She has long planned a thorough renovation of the Chapel Street landmark slated to begin this summer. “So needless to say, this is really bad timing,” she said.

For now, Criscuolo is optimistic that life, and business, will have returned to normal when summer arrives and that downtown attractions such as hers will have weathered the Lamont shutdown.

“I am hoping and praying [Lamont] finds a way to come up with money to offset what [businesses] are going to lose,” she said.

“We’re all going to suffer for a while,” Criscuolo added. “We’re going to lose money. God willing, we’re not going to lose lives.”

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