To Save His Restaurant Empire, This Tampa Chef Shut It All Down

Anxiety—it’s what’s on the menu forjust about everybodyin the restaurant business right now, and费雷尔·阿尔瓦雷斯（Ferrell Alvarez）这是坦帕湾地区最著名的厨师之一，也是您在这个美好一天的危险行业中遇到的最积极的人之一，他想明确表明他也在吓坏自己。但不是完全。

Nothing is normal, and like many restaurant owners, Alvarez and partner Ty Rodriguez, co-owners of Tampa’s Proper House Group, have been worrying—where will they be in a few weeks, if this keeps up? Their fledgling restaurant empire has grown considerably over the past couple of years, from one location, Rooster & The Till, to include a second restaurant, and two taquerias. All that work, maybe now for nothing?

最重要的是，阿尔瓦雷斯（Alvarez）迅速意识到，随着越来越多的美国人，这远不止于商业。他有责任。不仅是他的雇员，也是社区。

“维持一个聚会的地方that would continue to promote the virus—this was absolutely off the table,” said Alvarez. He knew they needed to close, and he wanted to do it sooner than later.

将其全部关闭，然后回家 - 这是一种选择，但感觉并不正确。经过一些闪电的头脑风暴，做出了决定。The restaurants would close, they had to, they couldn’t afford to keep the entire staff anyway, not at the moment, but he’d create an entirely new restaurant, at Rooster & The Till, and try to earn enough money to bring everyone back to work.

Thus was born Rooster Re-Dux, featuring abbreviated menus from all three concepts, for take-out and delivery. There is a $20, three-course tasting menu from Rooster & The TIll, taco platters from Gallito, Korean cheese steaks from Nebraska Mini-Mart.

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首先，很难的部分 - 在他的50多名员工回家中，但有希望，我们将要扩展一下，我们将要call you back, as soon as we do. The remaining employees would all agree to work a set shift-fee, equal across the board, general manager to sous chef; significantly less than usual, but at least everyone was in it together.

“We’re one dream, one team here,” said Alvarez, but he knew this was stretching that concept, and even while trying to stay in cheerleader mode, he was also prepared for the worst. He couldn’t even gather the group together, given the situation, to deliver the news, so he sent out a ten-minute video, via email, detailing his plan. The reaction was overwhelming.

阿尔瓦雷斯说：“我不敢相信我刚刚不得不裁员的人的积极性，人们问他们如何提供帮助，可以免费工作。”“厨师，泰，他们说，我们将做我们需要做的事情，使这件事发生。I was taken aback in the best way possible.”

Immediately, they set to work. Alvarez called everyone he could think of in the local press, every blogger and influencer he knew he could count on, he drew up a release, an email blast, and created new graphics, all in-house, and opened up shop, 11 in the morning to nine at night, seven days a week, hoping against hope that they’d bring enough money in, to be able to call more and more people back to work. The first day, they hit the ground running with five people.

“I thought that’s what we needed, but we already have nine people working, trying to keep up,” said Alvarez. By the end of the first shift, they were sold out completely.

Alvarez is cautiously optimistic, but it certainly appears that they’ve landed on something. Here, he offers some advice to other restaurant owners who might be feeling backed into a corner right now.

"This is worse than doing the wrong thing. Most restaurateurs aren’t scared, that’s why we’re in this business to begin with; it’s important to do something, do something positive, don’t be scared, think of a concept that is unique for your area, and people is going to pay attention, you’re going to capture more business, you’re going to create work for your employees."

“看看您的债务，您的现金，并首先根据财务做出真正受过教育的决定。现在，员工，当病毒完成后，您也已经完成了，他们失业了。”

“请休假，然后尽可能地将他们带回去。我了解拉力，我对我的人民有责任，但您不想蚕食自己。”

"If we employ who we can now, adding to that list as fast as we can, when this is over, we’ll have all four restaurants, and they’ll all come back, stronger than ever—this is so much more powerful than two weeks pay. If we go under, then we all have to start all over again. We all want to live through this, literally and figuratively."

"I’m hoping that the silver lining to all this madness is that it shakes us all and wakes us up enough to start doing the right thing by each other—you know how during hurricanes, everyone’s so nice, and three months later, that all dissolves and we all go back to being assholes? I’m hoping this jostles us—all of us—in the most positive way."