One Cannot Live on Hospitality Alone: The Restaurant Industry Taking Care of Its Own
03/25/20
by Dylan Heath
On a gray overcast afternoon in Wicker Park, a line snaked through the side streets. I followed the line with my roommate, past the park, under the L. We found the start at Honore and Milwaukee, across the street from the old Bom Bolla spot. Some folks grouped together in clusters while others stayed the recommended 6 feet apart. Some brought their dogs, some brought their family, their children. Everyone had come to partake in the Lee Initiative’s Restaurant Workers Relief Program.
Hosted by One Off Hospitality, the Lee Initiative is giving out a hot meal and groceries to the city’s hospitality workers. Big Star will be open from 5 to 7 PM every day until supplies last. At a time when Illinois’ bars, restaurants, and hotels are forced to run reduced hours and offer only takeout or delivery, hospitality workers are suffering first. It goes beyond the self-quarantine boredom and loneliness that other industries are facing. Cooking cannot be done online. Bartenders can’t make drinks for customers who aren’t there. Food runners can’t run food remotely.
Waiting in line. I can’t fight an ominous feeling and it takes me some time to figure out what it is. While I’m thankful that this is initiative is happening in our time of need, I slowly realize that this is a bread line. Like a bread line you hear about in stories about the Great Depression or the fall of Soviet Russia or the end of World War II. And this is not going to be the end of it.
Halfway through the wait, a woman in a Lexus SUV pulled up beside us and rolled down her window. “Why are you all in line?” she asked. My roommate and I explained the situation to her. “Okay, I was just curious,” she said and drove off. The fear in the pit of my stomach hardened.
The line went pretty quickly. Soon, we hit the front. They required a pay stub and an ID, which we had to show through the plastic window of the front door. A man, wearing a face mask and blue plastic gloves, checked each person. He then opened the door and placed a brown paper bag and take out-box on a plastic card table outside the door. I picked up mine and thanked them and walked home. The bag contained bread, rice and beans, some fruit, tortillas, and a roll of toilet paper. I was pleasantly surprised to find a bag of Sparrow coffee.
The hospitality industry takes care of its own. It’s a super small, super close-knit community where one needs to look out for the other. But we are hitting something we’ve never dealt with before. This type of care can only go so far. One Off and Makers Mark and the Lee Initiative only have so much money. Congress is debating a bailout bill that is sounding more and more like a stimulus package for some of the richest companies in the world. Meanwhile, we are standing in line to take food from each other. Something’s not right here.
Dylan is a cook in Chicago. He has worked in places such as Cafe Marie-Jeanne and Cellar Door Provisions. Before that, he wasted his time and money going to Journalism school at Roosevelt University.