Crown Heights Eateries Hunker Down Until Coronavirus Blows Over

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The new coronavirus is a storm with no end in sight for Crown Heights restaurant owners like Keavy Landreth.

Landreth woke up early Monday knowing she had to make a tough decision for Butter & Scotch, her bakery on Franklin Avenue.

“We had sort of debating over closing for a while,” she said. “‘A while’ is the last couple days — it seems things change hour by hour.”

But the last change still caught Landreth by surprise — an announcement late Sunday that Mayor Bill de Blasio will order restaurants to only serve takeout. The next morning she walked into her bakery and wrote a letter to her staff, telling them they were temporarily laid off.

Then she wrote to vendors, her landlord and lawyers, looking to see how much leeway on bills she had during this unprecedented situation — akin to an act of God, she said — and whether they’d be around when her business reopens.

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"We’re playing it by ear," she said. "It seems to change hour by hour. Basically, I’m trying to get it so we can put a pause on everything."

Playing it by ear is something of a motto among Crown Heights and New York City restaurant owners nowadays.

Christine Thompson owns Jemz, a Jamaican restaurant on St. Johns Place. She has seen business drop tremendously since COVID-19 started dominating headlines and the agendas of public officials, doctors and everyone else in the city.

On Monday, she contemplated asking staff not show up for the day. But the last day of sit-down business proved busier than expected, she said.

"I may have make adjustments as the week goes by," she said.

Adjustments means reducing hours for staff, asking them not to come in and keeping a close eye on the kitchen's stocks, Thompson said.

Sit-down customers were only a fraction of Thompson's business, but she has seen takeout drop as well.

"Takeout was 90 percent of our business," she said. "We’ve seen a reduction in takeout."

A typical day's takeout orders number around 70, Thompson said. She had 41 takeout orders on Sunday, she said.

All Thompson can do is keep running day-by-day and reassure customers she is keeping the place clean and sanitized.

Meanwhile, Keavy and a skeleton crew will complete a few outstanding orders by Wednesday and shutter the bakery for the time being.

Landreth told her staff to look into unemployment. She said one employee informed her that they couldn’t reach anyone at the unemployment office — it was too busy.

“Because pretty much half the city was unemployed as of this morning,” Landreth said, only mildly exaggerating the blow this dealt to the city’s food industry.

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