While record-breaking snowfall shutdown much of North Texas over the weekend, it obliterated revenue for many of the region’s restaurants and food businesses.
The winter storm came at a time restaurants are already hurting from the double blow of low winter sales and slowing consumer spending. It also hit during the time most restaurants make the majority of their weekly sales.
“When you consider the revenue you would bring in over a weekend, it’s hard to give that up,” said Jimmy Contreras, owner of Taco y Vino. “It’s really hard to give that up.”
For restaurant owners, making the decision to close, especially for days on end, is extremely difficult, he said.
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“We don’t want to risk anyone getting injured on the way to work or having them bend over backwards when it possibly won’t be beneficial to them,” Contreras said, “but the reality is we need the income.”
Contreras, who has a restaurant in the Bishop Arts area and another in Garland, made the decision to open his Dallas restaurant on Saturday, staffed only by himself and his family. During the hours it was open, the restaurant made an eighth of normal Saturday sales. Both of his restaurants were closed Sunday and Monday.
Between the two restaurants, Contreras estimates the weather-induced closures cost his business close to $30,000.
“That’s not something you recover from,” he said.
His concern now is that February could bring another round of debilitating weather, which has happened the past few winters.
“It always happens the week of Valentine’s Day,” Contreras said. “It’s like baby Jesus just doesn’t want Dallas restaurants to make money.”
If that were to happen, it would devastate local restaurants, he added.
“Can I afford to do this again? Absolutely not,” Contreras said.
At Lubbies Bagels in East Dallas, staff made it into the shop Saturday morning and customers trickled in, but by midday the weather worsened and sales stopped, so they closed. The shop remained closed Sunday and Monday.
“We just finally got open today but it’s dead there,” said the bagel shop’s co-owner Andrea Lubkin. “The pain continues.”
About 75% of Lubbies’ weekly sales are made between 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Lubkin said. Having to close on those two days effectively wiped out an entire week of revenue.
“Everybody is trying to hold their head above water right now,” she said. “This is just going to make it that much harder.”
She isn’t losing hope, though. A few catering orders came in that will help float them through the challenging week.
The best thing people can do to help restaurants recover, Contreras said, is to visit the ones in their own neighborhoods.
“You don’t have to jeopardize your life to go to your favorite place on the other side of town,” he said. “Support your neighborhood places. Everyone needs help right now.”