This Miami restaurant tried to do everything right during the pandemic. It still closed
All Day café in downtown Miami looked like it was doing all the right things — right up until the morning it announced it was closing.
It continued buying from small local producers as the pandemic made getting supplies difficult, ensuring a menu of fresh greens from Homestead farms, meat from one family ranch in Ocala, fresh eggs, premium coffee with trained baristas.
But after a year of long days trying to keep the business running, with staff that kept turning over just after they’d been trained, the pressure of the business became too much, owner Camila Ramos said. She closed All Day May 18, one day shy of its five-year anniversary.
“I needed a break, a true break,” Ramos said. “We have tried to do the right thing throughout it all, keeping in mind our customers and our own team.”
Ramos was among the first to turn her restaurant into a grocery store at the start of the pandemic, when restaurants weren’t allowed to be open, selling the produce that farmers were stuck with. They used part of the money to provide groceries to out of work employees. When the restaurant was allowed to first reopen after coronavirus closures, she committed to testing herself and her staff every 10 days.
She managed a full staff of 24, many making between $24-$29 an hour, as businesses struggled to hire.
“A busy business is not necessarily a successful business,” she said.
Ramos prided herself on the thoughtfulness of her restaurant. It was as important to her that the farms that grew their coffee or their produce treated their staff as ethically as she tried to treat her own, who she paid at the top of the scale for her sit-down restaurant service. Switching to a counter-service model would mean fewer tips and hours for staff, so she tried to keep them employed in full service.
But she and her staff dealt with pandemic fatigue and family members getting sick or dying from COVID-19. Some of her longest-tenured staff switched industries. It took a toll on them, she said, and also Ramos, who has a 5-year-old at home.
“Every day, operating through COVID, we were operating in a mode of fear and uncertainty,” she said. “We were insanely busy just trying to keep up with demand. .. It was either my health or the restaurant. So we’re taking break.”
Ramos said she hasn’t figured out her next steps but has talked with the landlord about eventually reopening All Day at its same location.
“I want to take some time,” she said, “and be the mom I’ve been wanting to be for five years and haven’t been able to be.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 12:48 PM.
