NYC restaurant owner on closure due to coronavirus restrictions: 'No words to describe the heartbreak'
Nearly two-thirds of New York eateries say they'll likely close this year without government aid
New York City restaurant owner Camilla Marcus told Fox Business Network's "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" Tuesday that she has "no words to explain the heartbreak" after she was forced to close her doors due to coronavirus restrictions.
“It’s been my life for over three years,” said Marcus, who shut down her Soho eatery West~bourne last week.
“Everything about restaurants is personal," she added. "It’s all about our people, more than anything. It’s a home for all the people we take care of day in and day out and all of our amazing team and to see that go away, there are unfortunately no words to explain the heartbreak."
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Last week, the New York State Restaurant Association published the results of a survey that found most of the state’s restaurants are in need of financial support from the government after months of closures and restrictions on capacity and dine-in service.
According to the survey, 63.6% of restaurants in New York said they are “likely to close by the end of the year” without a relief package and only 36.4 percent said they are “likely or somewhat likely to remain open.”
Of the 63.6% that are likely to close in 2020, 54.8% said they will close before November, the restaurant association found.
Marcus called out lawmakers for failing to provide a plan for restaurants to open safely during the pandemic.
“Now restaurants are in an impossible financial situation that has been going on now for almost six months with no plan being outlined at any level of government," she said. "No structural financial relief for our industry specifically that has been hit just so hard and so long."
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“A lot of us have personal guarantees on our leases, which I hope to fight to go away in the future. It is being leveraged for a pandemic that none of us caused ..." she said. "With that kind of personal financial liability overhang, you know, I have a family--I have a child who is one years old. I can’t put that at risk. It’s an impossible and deeply unfair position but unfortunately, restaurants are bearing the brunt of the fallout.”
Fox Business' Ann Schmidt contributed to this report.