Independent operators take on a mounting financial burden

Ellen Sledge watched her credit score tumble from excellent to fair.

Tim Baker notes his bank account dwindling each week, calculating how long his restaurants can possibly hang on.

Jeremy Lieb’s mounting debt compounds the already titanic-level stress of operating an independent restaurant amid the pandemic.

Restaurant Business profiled these independent restaurant operators from around the country in mid-March, at the very outset of the coronavirus crisis. Even in those early days, they had whittled down their staffs, prepared for shutdowns of unknown certainty and, in some cases, pivoted to delivery and even selling cartons of eggs and toilet paper to survive.

Five months into the pandemic, with no clear end in sight, their operations are still hanging on. But it is a daily struggle, they say, to quickly respond to changing local mandates while also navigating fluctuating consumer comfort with the mere concept of dining out. They’ve received loans and have spent thousands of dollars on outdoor dining upgrades, indoor safety revamps and personal protective equipment for their employees and guests.

One-third of all independent operators say it’s unlikely they’ll be able to remain open through October, according to a survey released earlier this month by the James Beard Foundation and the Independent Restaurant Coalition. What’s more, 75% of the mom and pops surveyed said they’d taken on new debt of at least $50,000 and more than 12% of those polled said their new debt totaled a half-million dollars or more.