No takeout, no delivery: These Miami restaurants are closing until COVID-19 passes
Ignacio Garcia-Menocal learned his lesson.
When Miami-Dade County issued a new order July 9, limiting restaurants to outside seating and takeout to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Garcia-Menocal, instead closed his company’s four restaurants altogether.
Stubborn Seed, headed by “Top Chef” winner Jeremy Ford, and Root & Bone, Stiltsville and Mi’talia Kitchen, by South Florida couple Janine Booth and Jeff McInnis, all have shut down temporarily.
“We were losing our shirts,” Garcia-Menocal said. “We just don’t have the money to survive.”
His group is not alone. Several other highly regarded Miami restaurants, which tried to weather the COVID-19 crisis during a first round of closures, by subsisting on takeout and delivery and a socially distanced dining room, have instead chosen to close.
Batch Gastropub, which has locations in Brickell, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, has closed its two southernmost restaurants. Blue Collar chef Danny Serfer will shut his downtown upscale sub shop Vinaigrette for at least four months, and he has turned his fine-dining seafood raw bar Mignonette into an Italian-American comfort food pop-up called Red Sauce for takeout because, “delivery and takeout at Mignonette was not a thing. Nobody came by for seafood and raw bar and I don’t blame them.”
Even Brad Kilgore, a James Beard award finalist, has kept his four restaurants closed and turned the kitchen of his luxurious Japanese-style Design District restaurant Kaido over to a new partner, Greg Tetzner, for a takeout pizza pop-up called Old Greg’s.
And Michael Beltran, the James Beard-nominated chef-owner of four restaurants and bars, will close his Coconut Grove spot Nave Saturday and Chug’s Cuban-American diner at the end of the month. He will consolidate his staff at his restaurants, Ariete and The Taurus.
“The battle is not today. We want to be here a year from now,” Beltran said.
The industry has been down this path — and seen it fail, they said.
After South Florida governments ordered restaurant dining rooms shut the first time in March to slow the spread of coronavirus, few knew what to expect.
They tried to takeout and delivery. When dining rooms were allowed to reopen in May, they followed the new rules, with seating limited to less than 50 percent as they kept six feet between tables. They set up tables in Florida’s often blistering, always unpredictable outdoors to reach full capacity.
The result, Garcia-Menocal said, barely affected their bottom line. He said his company’s average restaurant made about 10 percent of its previous sales through takeout and delivery. When dining rooms were allowed to reopen with reduced capacity, some of the restaurants reached up to 50 percent sales.
“We were running at a loss, but we were getting by,” he said.
But COVID-19 cases spiked in Miami-Dade, with more than 12,000 new cases this week alone. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered restaurants to close their inside dining rooms again, citing mounting evidence from the CDC and World Health Organization that the coronavirus can linger in the air in poorly ventilated, enclosed spaces, according to a New York Times report.
Rather than pivot back to a failed model, Garcia-Menocal said, they closed.
“We tried it and it didn’t work,” he said.
Instead, he said Grove Bay will use its cash reserves to continue paying health insurance for employees — more than 400 — who will now be laid off.
“We’re going to do it for as long as we can,” he said, “until the cash runs out.”
Beltran saw similar numbers with his restaurants.
His Nave, which was among Miami’s best new restaurants to open last year, had a huge dining room with lots of expenses and an older clientele.
“And they didn’t come back post-quarantine, which I totally understand,” he said.
The first round of closures saw Beltran’s businesses pivot in a way he never expected, turning his Chug’s into part bodega, and selling cocktails to go from The Taurus.
He said he had started to adjust to this new normal before restaurants were ordered closed again — and he couldn’t bear another pivot. The months of trying to keep employees paid, and dealing with the sudden death of one friend and coworker, became too much to take.
“The stress, the anxiety, the pressure of the first time around was unbearable,” Beltran said. “I’m not going to forget that anytime soon.”
Restaurants’ indoor dining rooms, the mayor said, will not be allowed to reopen until the percentage of people who test positive for coronavirus in Miami-Dade’s drops below 5 percent. On Thursday, it was above 20 percent.
However, Gimenez allowed gyms, office buildings, big-box hardware stores, malls and retailers to remain open with mask rules.
“I don’t know how we’re going to get there if all the burden is on restaurants to bring down the numbers,” Garcia-Menocal said. “We’re not saying we shouldn’t be shut down. We’re not health experts. But if that’s your goal, you’re not going to get there just by closing restaurants.”
A group of more than 50 restaurant owners have planned a demonstration at the AmericanAirlines Arena Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to protest the mayor placing the burden on restaurants for lowering Miami-Dade’s coronavirus numbers.
Many of them will be there instead of working at their restaurants.
UPDATE: Beltran has decided Nave will begin offering takeout and delivery Wednesdays through Sundays, beginning July 15. The menu and ordering information is available at the restaurant’s website.
Restaurants closed
Stubborn Seed, 101 Washington Ave., Miami Beach
Root & Bone, 5958 S Dixie Hwy., South Miami
Stiltsville, 1787 Purdy Ave., Miami Beach
Mi’talia Kitchen, 5958 S Dixie Hwy., South Miami,
Batch Gastropub, 30 SW 12th St., Miami
Vinaigrette, 159 E Flagler St., Miami
Mignonette, 210 NE 18th St., Miami. Has opened as the Italian takeout pop-up Red Sauce.
Nave, 3540 Main Hwy. #C-103, Miami
Chug’s Cuban-American Diner, 3444 Main Hwy. Suite 21, Miami
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 12:39 PM.
