BOSTON (WHDH) - The empty streets of Boston feel even more empty this week with a new round of restaurant closures.
Boston institutions, Stoddard’s Fine Food & Ale and The Kinsale announced Tuesday they have shut their doors indefinitely.
“A lot of the business dried up. Foot traffic isn’t what it used to be, and people just aren’t in the area,” Kinsale’s General manager Victor Carpino said.
“These are absolutely the worst times the industry has ever seen, it goes without saying,” Bob Luz, president of the Mass. Restaurant Association said.
Luz said that about 20 percent of all restaurants in the state have closed or failed to reopen since the pandemic began back in March. The situation is far worse in the city.
“What we’re missing in Boston right now is any semblance of day-to-day workers, conventions, colleges and universities, sports, culture, all of the typical drivers,” he explained.
Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley spoke at a virtual town hall to hear concerns from service workers in the state. The vast majority of those workers have been either furloughed or laid off.
Pressley said there has not been enough government support to help these people survive.
“No worker should have to choose between making a living and keeping their family safe period,” she said. “Our greatest wealth as a nation, as a commonwealth, is the health of our people.”
Restaurant workers in the area said they are not sure how they will make it through this hard time but that they are optimistic the industry will bounce back.
“It’ll take a few years though I believe,” Carpino said. “A lot of new blood has to come through and repopulate these areas that have been decimated.”
The Restaurant Association said the best way to help this struggling industry would be to receive another round of PPE loans however, that seems to have been put on hold with the president’s announcement stalling relief talks until after the election.
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