San Francisco restaurants dealing with pandemic, curfews and threats of vandalism

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco's restaurants say they are struggling, first a pandemic, the threat of vandalism in recent days, and now a curfew.

KTVU talked with a restaurateur who says she shares the anger and frustration of the protesters. But, she says restaurants that were already struggling from coronavirus now have two more possible threats to contend with, vandalism and the curfew.

San Francisco's restaurant scene has already been decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, just as those restaurants were beginning the process of welcoming back customers they're facing uncertainty and early closures. "We have a lot of concerns, yeah, said restaurateur Laurie Thomas. "We want everybody to be safe and we want the businesses to be secure and safe."

Thomas is the executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and runs two restaurants in San Francisco, Rose's Cafe and Terzo, both currently closed. She says her organization and most restaurants around the city support the demonstrations and share the frustration after seeing the video of George Floyd dying in police custody.

But, she says the nights of unrest and now the curfew are adding new burdens on already struggling businesses. Restaurant workers are allowed out after the curfew, but many restaurants are simply closing early so workers aren't put at risk coming or going to work. "It's definitely causing a lot of our members to close down their operations several hours early," said Thomas.

She says black and brown owned restaurants are feeling the impact, as are workers in all of the city's restaurants, often people of color and immigrants.

The Golden Gate Restaurant Association is saying the unrest and curfew are adding to the uncertainty about how the corona virus will impact business, and could delay restaurants looking to reopen to outdoor business June 15th. "I've heard a couple of folks say they're going to put those plans on hold right now, there's just too much uncertainty," said Thomas. "Also we're very concerned if there is an outbreak of COVID-19."

Thomas is urging people to listen to one another at this critical moment in time, and the Golden Gate Restaurant Association is urging people to support their local restaurants by ordering take out before the curfews goes into effect nightly, with take out the restaurant keeps 100% of the money.