Restaurant Layoff Numbers From EDD Are As Depressing As You Might Expect

A state-wide system intended to track mass layoffs provides a snapshot of how many local restaurant workers have been laid off in recent weeks.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act is a federal requirement that large companies planning “mass layoffs” provide at least a 60 day notice before letting folks go. (There’s a good FAQ on WARN here, and California-specific WARN details can be found here.) That obviously hasn’t happened in these unprecedented days of crisis, and many large local restaurant groups have had to move as swiftly as possible to alert staffers that they’re out of work, even if that means the communication isn’t as personal as they might like, or that state-level notification hasn’t been made.

The San Francisco Business Times has a roundup of some of the latest WARN notices filed by San Francisco restaurant groups with the California Employment Development Department (EDD), stats which even the Biz Times says “don’t yet give us a full picture of what layoffs have already happened or are planned for the near future.” Some of the most prominent local restaurants and their layoff numbers include:

• The Cheesecake Factory (261)
• Boulevard Restaurant (125)
• La Mar Cebicheria Peruana (124)
• Original Joe’s (110)
• Hakkasan (106)
• Zuni Cafe (91)
• Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse {66)
• The Stinking Rose (58)

And in other news...

• Beloved-by-the-Beats North Beach bar Specs’ (full name: Specs’ Twelve Adler Museum Cafe) is in “serious financial shape,” as its been shut down since the coronavirus crisis began. [SF Gate]
• If you head through the Lower Haight these days, you’ll see that a lot of business owners have taken their dystopian-looking plywood window-and-door shields and turned them into something beautiful. For example, longstanding pub Danny Coyle’s has a mural painted by Julia Prochnik and wine bar Uva Enoteca has art from Gio Acosta and Elia Magari. [Hoodline]
• Sure, we’re just a quick bus ride from Silicon Valley, but while Google parent company Alphabet’s drones are delivering things like pastries to hungry folks in Christiansburg, Virginia, there aren’t any plans to launch them in the Bay Area anytime soon. [Slate]
• Prior to the coronavirus crisis, several local breweries took out huge SBA loans to build their business. With the current shutdown, it’s going to be far harder than anticipated to pay those debts down. [SF Business Times]
• On Monday, SF Mayor London Breed announced that by dialing 311, “callers can get an assessment of their household’s food needs by a social worker and then get connected with grocery deliveries, as well as prepared meals for people who don’t have access to a kitchen.” You can find more information on the program here. [Bay City News]
• Tea and snack chain Quickly, which might be known to San Francisco news nerds as the restaurant that brought down former SF Supervisor turn convicted felon Ed Jew, has temporarily closed all its U.S. stores, and says that 50 of them (locations TBD) will never reopen. [SF Weekly]
• Popular Albany Indian spot Delhi Diner is planning another location on Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue. [Daily Californian]
• You’ve likely read nationally-focused reports on how the coronavirus crisis has led to epic food waste at the farm level — and in California farms, the story’s not too different. [SF Chronicle]