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Thanks for nuthin!
A Staten Island restaurant owner was left with a mass of canceled reservations – and dozens of spare turkeys – after abruptly finding out his business is set to close for Thanksgiving due to new coronavirus restrictions.
“It feels like the carpet has been ripped from under us,” Kostantino Plaitis told The Post on Wednesday.
Plaitis, who has run Andrew’s Diner in the south of the island since it opened in 1999, said no one from the state or town had let him know his business had been placed in the ‘orange zone’ this week .
Governor Cuomo warned on Sunday that “parts of Staten Island would go into an orange zone” – but Plaitis said he only learned of the new restrictions from a Channel 2 reporter on Tuesday, and has now been forced to shut down its interior dining room. Under the restrictions, the diner is allowed to be open for outdoor dining, but does not have an outdoor setting.
The family-run restaurant expected to serve around 500 diners over the holidays, “which just happens to be one of the busiest days for us,” Plaitis said.
Since we opened a store with his father and brother, “we’ve built a loyal following,” Plaitis said. “We have a lot of customers who spend every Thanksgiving with us.”
Plaitis, 41, said he spent most of Wednesday scrambling to try and convert his reservations into takeout.
About 60% of the restaurant’s loyal clientele who planned to eat there agreed to have their Thanksgiving parties held instead.
There were other logistics to figure out, including a shortage of take-out containers – and what to do with 100 spare birds.
The “poultry” situation could have been avoided if Plaitis had been given advance notice, he said.
“It just doesn’t seem like they’re sensitive to mom and pop business owners,” Plaitis said.
“It stings a bit.”
New York restaurant consultant Rick Camac said, “There is no mechanism in place” to notify restaurants when they will be grappling with the new COVID-19 regulations.
“You have to follow the media,” Camac said. “Short warning and no formal strategy, details, roadmap or advice.”
Plaitis also said he did not understand the state’s zip code-based system because “people aren’t confined to their own zip codes.”
The northern part of Staten Island, for example, moved into the “yellow zone” this week, which means indoor dining is still allowed there. Plaitis said he wished to have a second location on the North Rim, noting that “that doesn’t make sense.”
“I’m in the hospitality business and now I have to close the door on people who have been loyal to me… We don’t want anyone to feel sorry for us, but we want people to understand that it is just not fair.
Plaitis said he would work out a solution and consider giving the birds free to churches or people in need – but “If we had had a little more time we could have found a lot more to do with these. turkeys.
All he asked for, he said, was a bit of “sensitivity” from officials to small business such as being left out.
However, “It’s my job to find out and we’ll find out,” Plaitis said.
State and city officials did not immediately return requests for comment.
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