Saturday night was the last night. It was a nice little restaurant, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. Great food, reasonable prices, friendly staff and owners who were just simply the nicest people in the world. Now, just like that, it's gone.
It wasn't a shock, really. I'm sure we all saw it coming. It was a fairly new restaurant, open for less than two years. I started there last summer and business was pretty good and seemed to be growing.
But then the downturn hit. The fall was disappointing and the holidays, despite a small fortune's worth of advertising, were a disaster. The writing was clearly on the wall, in retrospect, back then.
I could float a dozen theories, and maybe they'd all be true. The location wasn't the best, at the far end of a strip mall that has itself seen a decline in traffic, a couple hundred yards off the road. Out of sight, out of mind, perhaps.
Though all restaurants are suffering right now, I think the newer ones are hit harder. When people go out frequently they are more likely to try something new. When it's a rare treat they tend to favor old reliable favorites where they no exactly what to expect.
But the why doesn't matter so much, I guess. No matter the reason, ten more people are out of work this Monday. And more jobs gone than that, if you consider employment at our briefly attained peak.
For the owners it's a double whammy. Not only the loss of the business and their investment, but the decline in value of their other investments as the market has tanked the past couple years. Money that also, in better times, might have helped keep the business afloat.
My heart breaks for them.
And I suppose for myself. I am an experienced food and beverage professional, with management experience and over twenty years behind a bar. I'm fast, reliable, hardworking and good with guests.
Yet the last time I looked for work, put out to pasture by a buyer trying to cut payroll and eliminate health insurance (Thanks, Goldman-Sachs! How's that $12 billion bailout with our money going?) it took a year to find something. And the savings that got me through the rough times are gone.
I'd already started looking, but again places just aren't calling me back. Sometimes it seems like experience is actually a negative in this business.
I know there are folks out there that are worse off, I might be eligible for unemployment, though we'd been closing early when it's slow and I'm not certain that towards the end I was working enough hours to qualify. And on restaurant wages in a place with little business if I can collect the amount will be unbelievably small.
Last time I was nervous. This time, I'm terrified.