New York restaurant owners forgo salary all year, struggle to stay open 3 days a week

Two New York City restaurant co-owners who have poured their savings into the business fear that, without any financial support, they won't be able to make it through the coronavirus pandemic.

Bobby Digi and Lisa McFarland, the owners of O'Henry's Publick House in Staten Island, told FOX Business that closing has become an "everyday fear." Now, with indoor dining on pause, they said their future is unimaginable.

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Even after forgoing their own salaries earlier this year, Digi and McFarland said they still had to let go of half their staff and cut their hours of operation down to just three days a week in order to stay afloat.

"We're cutting down days where sales don't warrant us staying open. It cuts the overhead and will help us stay afloat longer," Digi said, adding that they were trying to conserve as much money as possible as they "limp ahead."

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The owners recalled applying for more loans and grants than they "can even count" to help them through this unprecedented time. However, Digi said each application "has been met with a dead end."

Up until last week, the restaurant was operating on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, serving 20 people indoors and 30 people outside. With indoor dining banned since Monday, they fear they may have to close completely during the winter.

Starting this week, indoor dining was paused citywide and restaurants were forced to rely on outdoor seating, takeout and delivery service. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made it clear that if hospitalization rates didn't stabilize in the area after five days, then indoor dining would be closed entirely.

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The governor has repeatedly expressed concern over the rising case rates and hospitalizations, which could overwhelm the health care system for a second time.

"In the meantime, we are laser-focused on ensuring the increase in cases we are seeing does not overwhelm our hospital system and we are putting in place redundancies to shore them up," Cuomo said in a statement.

The governor also noted that the borough of Staten Island already represents roughly 25% of the COVID-19 deaths in New York City and that the situation across the entire state could get worse before it gets better.

However, Digi and McFarland said "it's been a nightmare" keeping up with all the restrictions.

Already into the colder-weather months, they don't think they will able to use their outside setup at all, an investment they said cost them thousands of dollars.

"We have gone through seven tents due to the weather," McFarland said. "It was like the 'Wizard of Oz.' The tents did a full 360."

Both owners said they are contemplating switching to takeout and delivery service, although they are mulling over the idea of completely shutting down for all of January.

"We don't see a path forward," Digi said.

And Digi and McFarland aren't the only ones fearing the fate of their business.

Roughly 61% of restaurant and bar owners across the U.S. have said they won't even be able to make December rent, according to Alignable.

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