Bay Area brewery protests ban on outdoor dining
4 min read
Nearly a month into the regional ban on outdoor dining, one Bay Area brewery owner says it’s time to protest.
Helen Nasser-Elddin, co-owner of Pacifica Brewery, announced her business will host its very first peaceful protest Wednesday, which she hopes will lift the ban on outdoor dining in the Bay Area.
“I want people coming to express their solidarity with the restaurant and the small-business industry,” Nasser-Elddin said. “We’re begging [the government] to reconsider and immediately and effectively remove the ban on outdoor dining.”
On Facebook, Nasser-Elddin asked supporters to meet at Pacifica Brewery’s parking lot, located at 4627 Pacific Coast Highway in Pacifica, and be ready to protest by 1 p.m.
“Who needs lobbyists when we have the the [sic] hard working people stronger louder, prouder in our industry,” the Facebook post reads. “… We will be making important points to why we know outdoor spaces have proven to be very safe during pandemic.”
Like many small-business owners, Nasser-Elddin thinks the recent statewide stay-at-home order is unjust. After San Mateo County issued its stay-at-home order on Dec. 17, Nasser-Elddin says Pacifica Brewery has made about $600 a day operating on takeout. She estimates that sales have dipped another 90% at this point.
“My husband works 18-hour days because we can’t afford half the staff,” Nasser-Elddin said of head chef and co-owner Sylvain Montassier. “We’re just beat down. We don’t know what we’re going to do. [If] we lose our business… we lose everything.”
Nasser-Elddin said that Pacifica Brewery spent nearly $30,000 to install heaters to keep her guests warm while dining at the brewery’s outdoor patio. An additional $12,000 have been spent on maintenance fees every two months.
On Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020 co-owners Helen Nasser Elddin and Sylvain Montassier plan to protest the state’s ban on outdoor dining. Pacifica Brewery opened four months before the coronavirus pandemic and like many businesses around the Bay Area has struggled to stay afloat.
Pacifica BreweryNasser-Elddin believes that restaurants and breweries can continue to provide outdoor dining and simultaneously prevent the spread of COVID-19 if they follow the health safety guidelines that were already in place. But the recent shutdown felt like a gut punch in an already difficult year.
“The restaurant industry has applied every single COVID guideline [but] is being deemed a superspreader,” Nasser-Elddin said. “We are going to fight to the end of our business and have the state re-look at shutting down outdoor spaces. It’s unlawful and it’s unjust. I’m at my wits’ end.”
The protest comes as other Bay Area businesses hope to reverse the ban on outdoor dining. Dustin Sullivan, owner of Guesthouse restaurant in Kentfield, Calif., initiated a petition backed by Marin restaurateurs to reinstate outdoor dining. On Wednesday morning, the petition had 3,477 signatures out of 5,000 needed.
“We are begging you to reconsider your stance on outdoor dining in Marin. Families are going hungry while 1,200 people are in Costco. Families are going hungry while 900 people are in Home Depot. Families are going hungry while large corporations worth billions of dollars are doing record revenue,” Sullivan said in a statement.
Nasser-Elddin echoed that stance after a recent visit to the Westfield San Francisco Centre.
“I had walked in and out of the mall three separate times… Meanwhile, [there were] people with their masks off drinking their coffee, smelling candles, looking at makeup, touching everything,” Nasser-Elddin said. “I felt like it was a Twilight Zone. You cannot close down small businesses that have applied the guidelines and keep corporate and big retailers open indoors because there’s just no way for them to enforce [the guidelines].”
She clarified that her frustration wasn’t directed towards the retail workers themselves, but rather the unfairness of the current system in place.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion stimulus bill that will set aside $285 billion in small business loans under the Payment Protection Program. The New York Times reports that the new round of loans will have stricter terms and will only be available to “borrowers with fewer than 300 employees that experienced at least a 25 percent drop in sales from a year earlier in at least one quarter.”
Nasser-Elddin is unsure if she will qualify for the next PPP loan since Pacifica Brewery just opened last November. For now, she hopes locals will join the Wednesday protest to support small businesses before its too late.
“Nothing’s going to be left of the Bay Area or of California except fast food and big corporate,” she said.
