by Jenise » Tue Aug 15, 2023 1:24 pm
Good review. Not that I've been there, but I mean stylistically. Liked it.
Bobby started this program talking about the fact that 70,000 restaurants have closed since the start of the pandemic. He himself closed Gato, his high end Manhattan eatery, almost immediately because he "didn't know what was going to happen". But others stuck with it, or pivoted, some with success and some not so much. Like Esther Choi (I think her name is) who does Korean in NYC.
She stopped in-house service and started a to-go thing. That was just to survive, but she now produces 15,000 meals a week for to-go and delivery service and that's the heartbeat of her growing empire. He talks with the guy who started Pizza Bianco, mostly of Phoenix Arizona but also now in Los Angeles, about how they survived. Ditto a restaurant called Kachka in Portland (they started a vodka business). He talks to the CEO of Door Dash about how that's evolved. Cat whatever-her-last-name-is of Louisville was singled out for 1) starting her restaurant at a very poor time considering what was about to happen, and a vegetable-forward restaurant in Butchertown on top of that, and 2) being a total neophyte. She had no idea how to run a business (and by her own admission is still learning), but she stuck with it and her little tent kitchen is now a popular restaurant and she has opened a second location. She accomplished what naysayers thought couldn't be done.
Anyway, it was a very interesting show.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
Those are good restaurants, but I’m not sure I’d single them out. 