Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1301686
NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 66 NOVEMBER 2020 I N - D E P T H A flight of beer at Granite Coast. Since the COVID-19 pandemic spread at an alarming rate throughout America, one business struck especially hard has been the restaurant industry. Rooted deeply in a social experience where contact is the norm, both for guests and for service workers, vulnerabilities surfaced almost immediately. The industry's reach is widespread. Sixty-three percent of consumers would rather spend money on an experience than purchase an item, according to the National Restaurant Association. Statistically, the Gallup organization's research shows this aligns with 61 percent of Americans eating at a restaurant at least once in the past week. "It's been tragic," says restaurateur and CEO Steve DiFillippo of Davio's Northern Local restaurants get creative during the pandemic. BY ROBERT G. PUSHK AR RESILIENT RESTAURANTS PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELISE SINAGRA Italian Steakhouse restaurant group with seven locations around Boston and in four other states. "It's really difficult for restaurants now." In Massachusetts, 3,600 of the 16,000 restaurants that existed on the first of March have not reopened, the Massachusetts Restaurant Association reports. President and CEO Bob Luz says that 255,000 out of 300,000 industry workers have been laid off. "To have 39 percent yet to return to the workforce, I'd say that's devastation." Kathi Turner of the Turner restaurants and renowned seafood fisheries, whose family footprints have been planted in New England for nearly 100 years, says business is down 50 percent at two of their restaurants. A new venture, the Rising Eagle Publick House, directly across the street from Turner's Melrose Grill & Market, there since 1994, closed after only three months. They were forced to downsize from 230 employees to less than 100. Meanwhile, chef and co-owner Kathy Milbury of My Place by the Sea in Rockport has reduced seating capacity to 50 percent and offered since June outdoor dining both on the upstairs and the downstairs decks overlooking spectacular ocean views. "People want to be outdoors no matter what the weather," Milbury says. "They have been out there during these cold nights with winds blowing and lobster rolls flying in the air, and they still want to sit outdoors. We have not used our indoor seating at all." Davio's chefs and bartenders take every precaution to protect customers. The outdoor dining season has been extended until December 1.