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Guest Opinion | Robin Salzer: Roadmap to Recovery for Our Beloved Pasadena Restaurants

Published on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 | 2:55 pm
 
Robin Salzer

If you didn’t already know it, Pasadena has more restaurants per capita than almost any city in the United States.

When I opened Robin’s Wood Fire BBQ in 1982 there were more than 260 restaurants in Pasadena.

Now the sheer volume of locally-owned mom and pop operations and the national chains that have targeted locations in Pasadena have catapulted our city into the dining capital of Southern California.

On March 16, by local and state mandate, the restaurant industry as we know it changed forever.

The term “essential business” dictated success for some and failure for others. Our restaurants are amongst the most essential businesses in Pasadena, both for the extraordinary food that they offer but also for the incredible number of locally hired employees.

Full service sit down restaurants are essentially shutdown and allowed to offer only takeout and curbside delivery food. My former colleagues tell me that on a good day they might do 15-20 percent of the sales that they used to do while open.

A full service casual, family or fine dining restaurant will not survive or sustain itself on takeout and curbside delivery alone. When you factor in the 20 to 30 percent that the national dinner delivery services are charging the restaurants they are losing money with almost every delivery.

If this continues without intervention this is a menu for financial disaster. Our restaurateurs aren’t expecting an immediate pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but they do need to see a glimmer of light at the end of the shutdown tunnel.

The cities and restaurants that are the most adaptable and visionary will find their own solutions that focus on community, sustainability and simplicity.

COVID-19 will force the restaurant industry to fundamentally rethink what it means to be a restaurant. The possibilities are both terrifying and exhilarating. To move forward there must be an open working dialogue with our city leaders, the health department and the restaurant owners.

The real danger is how we cope with the new edicts from our City Council and health department while scrapping much of our present business template to stem the flow of 2-3 months of financial distress while developing a plan to assure success and sustainability once the municipal and state shutdown is lifted.

For once let’s really think out of the box. I would implore the Mayor and City Council to be bold and visionary in balancing the needs of the city and the small business community.

Let’s do what’s in the best interest of Pasadena and the health and safety of our residents and customers.

Let’s give our restaurants some light and a plan of hope. This is my interpretation of the “Pasadena Way”.

My suggestions are as follows:

Put the minimum wage on the state timeline.

Raising the minimum wage to $15.00 on July 1 while still dealing with the shutdown affects would be the final nail in the coffin for many small businesses.

Waive business license and health permit fees for all restaurants for up to one year if they are in total compliance with any and all new policies and procedures.

Start a city hospitality commission made up from restaurateurs, hoteliers, a city council member and city staff. This commission could be a branch of the PCOC or stand alone. The stakeholders on this commission would bring real life hands on customer service experience to assist in the driving the food and entertainment business to Pasadena.

Rose Bowl concessions and any event scheduled in Pasadena should be offered exclusively to Pasadena restaurants on a first right of refusal. Not every restaurant is built for off premise concessions but it can be an incredible source of income for those interested. Pasadena restaurants should be showcased at the Rose Bowl and at every city event. As with the business license the annual restaurant health permit should also cover all off premise events.

Close off Colorado Boulevard from Raymond to Pasadena avenues permanently so the Old Pasadena restaurants on Colorado Boulevard can increase their outdoor seating. All restaurants may have to reduce their inside seating by at least 50 percent due to possible new social distancing guidelines.
These restaurants in our city’s highest rent area could redefine the dining experience of Old Pasadena.

It would be festive, well lit, aromatic and it would be a boon for the city, restaurants and retail stores. Traffic to and from Old Pasadena would continue west on Union Street and east on Green Street.

There would still be access to the public and private parking lots off both of these two streets. Think back to the world cup in 1994. The same streets were closed off for a week and it was an incredible experience for everyone.

I have experienced closed off streets for dining in major cities like San Francisco, New York and Chicago and it works.

Pasadena should close off South Lake Avenue from Green Street to San Pasqual Avenue. Traffic to and from the South Lake Avenue District would still use Shoppers Lane and Mentor Avenue on the east and Hudson Street on the west to access the public and private parking lots. The restaurants on South Lake could extend their dining tables up to their respective boulevard divider. I would offer South Lake dining space to both Green Street Restaurant on Shoppers Lane and Magnolia House just past San Pasqual Avenue.

Both are important anchors in the area. Again, this would be festive, lively, fun and our restaurants and retail stores in the area would flourish.
Bold? Yes.

Doable? Absolutely.

Necessary? Only if we want to be the best.

Pasadena is a diner’s destination so why not break the mold of the mundane and pull out all of the stops. This is the time, the right time to refine and redefine Pasadena as our beloved city and as a dining and tourist destination.

When people think about Pasadena most often they’ll talk about the Rose Bowl, Cal Tech, JPL, Huntington Library, Norton Simon Museum and our restaurants.

Now is the time to forever put Pasadena on the map as the essential gastronomic capital of California. This is the Pasadena Way.

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