For 20 years, Christopher Raynal ran the Montmartre bistro in Washington, D.C., but the restaurant closed its doors in March as the coronavirus shuttered popular eateries across the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. As stay-at-home orders end, Raynal has decided that Montmartre and its sister spot, Seventh Hill Pizza, won’t be coming back — in part because federal aid programs designed for small business won’t help enough. Raynal had explored pandemic relief loans created by Congress, yet found that bringing back staff to operate under new occupancy caps would boost labor costs and bring only a small gain in revenue, an unsustainable scenario that restaurateurs are wrestling with across the country. Raynal is one of thousands of restaurant owners nationwide stuck in the same trap: They’re desperate for assistance, but are reluctant to tap the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program because of the strings attached to the relief loans. The economic pressure from the pandemic is hitting some of the country’s top-tier establishments, forcing some to close for good. The casualties include David Chang’s Momofuku in Washington, D.C., New York’s pioneering Pegu Club cocktail bar and John Fraser’s 701 West in the Times Square Edition hotel, which itself is scheduled to close in August. Many more establishments are teetering financially and may have to scale back their culinary ambitions just to survive.
