Restaurant owners talk to Underwood about their needs after COVID-19 devastation

GENEVA – When restaurants were hit with COVID-19 restrictions last year, many hustled to face a new reality.

Rachel Skubiszewski-Mucci, owner of Café Olympic in Crystal Lake, had bought a 76-year-old diner with her partner five months before the pandemic shut it down.

Because it was a new LLC, she didn’t qualify for any of the programs to aid businesses outside of $5,000 from the Small Business Administration, Skubiszewski-Mucci said.

“We had survived on grit and creativity and hard work,” Skubiszewski-Mucci said. “We went weeks and months where we did not pay ourselves so we could pay staff. I didn’t actually lay anyone off. … It’s hard for me because there’s all these programs available and I had great resources to help me … and we literally haven’t qualified because we don’t fit in that mold.”

Skubiszewski-Mucci along with Zak Dolezal, owner of Duke’s Ale House, also in Crystal Lake, and Lawrence Colburn, owner of Preservation Bread and Wine and Atlas Chicken Shack, both located in downtown Geneva, met with U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, at Colburn’s restaurant Friday afternoon for a roundtable discussion.

Glenn Jones, owner of Patelli’s Gyros and Beef in Aurora and Naperville, participated remotely.

The discussion was part of Underwood’s American Rescue Plan Tour. She listened to their experiences and talked about the Restaurant Revitalization Fund that provides $28.6 billion in federal resources for food and drinking establishments.

The 14th Congressional District includes portions of Lake, McHenry, Kane, DeKalb, Kendall, DuPage and Will counties.

Colburn said Preservation Bread and Wine is now 11 years old and that Atlas Chicken Shack next door is four years old.

“If you couldn’t access some of the funds that we could access, that’s not fair,” Colburn said. “If we are able to get anything on the table today. … Those that got shut out of that (pandemic aid), that is what we should be talking about.”

Colburn said even without COVID assistance, his restaurants would have made it – but while the sit-down restaurant – which is Preservation Bread & Wine – went down in business, Atlas Chicken, which is more “quick serve” and take out, got busier.

“We were able to weather the storm,” Colburn said.

While Colburn said he did not need the next set of funds available, Underwood said she disagreed.

“I think the whole sector needs it because our communities are set around these vibrant downtown areas and the dining is the attraction,” Underwood said.

Dolezal, who also has a sister business, Durty Nellie’s in Palatine, said, “We were lucky we were able to get those loans – exceptionally lucky.”

“Restaurants need to come out not only stronger and survive the whole mess, but to be better,” Dolezal said. “There’s a lot of problems in the industry itself and maybe we can use some of this funding … as a way to improve the hospitality industry … with better wages and accommodations for its employees.”

The restaurant owners also credited their cities with support during the heart of the pandemic.

Skubiszewski-Mucci said Crystal Lake cut its liquor license fee by half – because she had paid the license fee on time – and allowed her diner to have an open patio in the summer, and tents and heaters in the winter.

Colburn said Geneva not only forgave liquor licenses in 2020, but also in 2021, and also allowed restaurants to use public land.

“A liquor license free for two years – this year was a surprise,” Colburn said. “Last year, I was OK, we deserve it. This year, OK, we still deserve it, but I didn’t see that coming.”

The restaurant owners told Underwood that small amounts of assistance like $1,000 are not worth the time it would take to apply for them.

When Underwood pressed them on what amount would make the best impact for them, they agreed $50,000 would do.

With that much money, Skubiszewski-Mucci said she could replace a walk-in cooler, a freezer, refurbish the building and finish building a bakery in the basement – with a second oven.

“My partner and I are both bakers right now, we are working out of one oven. So … we bake overnight because the guys need the oven during the day,” Skubiszewski-Mucci said. “We sold 15,000 cinnamon rolls in less than a year and it’s an eight-hour process to make 48.”

Dolezal said he would use those funds for payroll and utilities.

“It’s hard. A lot of small businesses do the accounting themselves and that’s not simple work, let alone the time of running your business,” Dolezal said. “It takes constant investment.”

The plan to revitalize restaurants:

• Appropriates $25 billion for a new program at the Small Business Administration, offering assistance to restaurants and other food and drinking establishments.

• Make grants available for up to $10 million per entity, with a limitation of $5 million per physical location, and entities are limited to 20 locations.

• Grants may be used for a variety of expenses, including payroll, mortgage, rent, utilities, supplies, food and beverage expenses, paid sick leave, and operational expenses.

More information is available online at the National Restaurant Association website, restaurant.org, as the SBA has not yet posted its rules or applications for the grants.