Hamilton in 2021. When I added weekend brunch, which started as a dreamy idea, not a business plan, it wound up being popular enough to let me buy out all six of the original investors. Next day: Preheat. Twenty-one days after we closed, Ashley still hadnt been able to reach unemployment. Among the artifacts that will someday form the historical view of the COVID-19 pandemic is Gabrielle Hamilton's April 2020 New York Times essay headlined, "My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years.Does the World Need it Anymore?" Hamilton is the owner and chef of Prune, one of New York's most beloved restaurants.She's also the author of "Blood, Bones, & Butter," which has become . The sludge of egg yolk seeped through the coverall, through my clothes to my skin, matted my hair and speckled my goggles as my shock registered: It has always been hard, but when did it getthishard? Since Prune opened in the East Village, the neighborhood has changed tremendously in ways that reflect, with exquisite perfection, the restaurant scene as a whole. I opened it in 1999. If Covid-19 is the death of restaurants in New York, will we be able to tell which restaurants went belly up because of the virus? After a couple of weeks of watching the daily sales dwindle a $12,141 Saturday to a $4,188 Monday to a $2,093 Thursday it was a relief to decide to pull the parachute cord. I turned and spotted the royal blue heel of my youngests socked foot poking out of the black soil only after it was too late. Neither of us was insured. A new 14th Street pan-Caribbean restaurant, St. James, is slated to open later this summer. I have to hope, though, that we matter in some other alternative economy; that we are still a thread in the fabric that might unravel if you yanked us from the weave. I opened it in 1999. I would cook there much the way I cooked at home: whole roasted veal breast and torn lettuces in a well-oiled wooden bowl, a ripe cheese after dinner, none of the aggressively conceptual or architectural food then trendy among aspirational chefs but also none of the roulades and miniaturized bites Id been cranking out as a freelancer in catering kitchens. disaster loan I estimated we wouldnt need much; for 14 days, $50,000 so I sent in my query. Knowing the balance, I snorted to myself:Good luck with that.I called Ken about this, and he got them to postpone the draw. The refrigerator is still humming and the pilot lights are lit. Your remarks and lively debates are welcome, whether supportive or critical of the views herein. I, like hundredsof other chefs across the city and thousands around the country, are now staring down the question of what our restaurants, our careers, our lives, might look like if we can even get them back. Have a great weekend everyone! I cant keep hosing down the saut corner myself just to have enough money to repair the ripped awning. The phone rang throughout the day, overwhelmingly well-wishers and regretful cancellations, but there was a woman who apparently hadnt followed the coronavirus news. I was bombarded with an astonishing volume of texts. Sometimes I rearrange the tables. newsletter. Prune is in the East Village because Ive lived in the East Village for more than 30 years. Tim Schneider, April 27, 2020. Everybodys saying that restaurantswont make it back, that we wont survive. Within a 10-block radius of my front door, we have the more-than-100-year-old institutions Russ & Daughters and Katzs Delicatessen. In the beginning I was closed on Mondays, ran only six dinner shifts and paid myself $425 a week. Of gentle but nervous pleas from my operations manager to consider signing up with a third-party delivery service like Caviar. She is used to having an Uber driver pick her up exactly where she stands at any hour of the day, a gel mani-pedi every two weeks and award-winning Thai food delivered to her door by a guy who braved the sleet, having attached oven mitts to his bicycle handlebars to keep his hands warm. "Our beloved regulars and the people who work so hard at Prune are all still my favorite people on earth. I imagine this is at least partly true: Not all of us will make it, and not all of us will perish. Id seen the padlocked space, formerly a failed French bistro, when it was decrepit: cockroaches crawling over the sticky Pernod bottles behind the bar and rat droppings carpeting the floors. I emailed my accountant: This is weird? Well, you can hear the compressors humming. Texas eyes reopening. Even though I cant quite take part in it myself Im the boss, who must remain a little aloof from the crew I still quietly thrum with satisfaction when the kids are chattering away and hugging one another their hellos and how-are-yous in the hallway as they get ready for their shifts. 92 reviews NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Gabrielle Hamilton, bestselling author of Blood, Bones & Butter, comes her eagerly anticipated cookbook debut filled with signature recipes from her celebrated New York City restaurant Prune. SAN FRANCISCO - As California's economy comes roaring back and the state prepares to fully reopen this month, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced action to ensure that restaurants, bars, breweries and wineries continue to benefit from pandemic regulatory relief - including expanded outdoor dining and the sale of to-go alcoholic drinks - to support the recovery of businesses and . I wanted a place you could go after work or on your day off if you had only a line cooks paycheck but also a line cooks palate. I cant keep hosing down the saut corner myself just to have enough money to repair the ripped awning. Every Saturday and Sunday, dozens of hopeful brunchersboth tourists and localsline up at the East Village spot for hours to nosh on. One of the state's most critically acclaimed farm-to-table restaurants, Matia Kitchen on Orcas Island in San Juan County will reopen on Friday in a different location on Eastsound, two months. Own this business? Our beloved regulars and the people who work so hard at Prune are all still my favorite people on earth. And God, the brunch, the brunch. For some reason, I cant see wanting deuces anymore: No more two-tops? I spend hours inside each day, on a wooden chair, in the empty clean space with the windows papered up, and I listen to the coolers hum, the compressor click on and off periodically, the thunder that echoes up from the basement as the ice machine drops its periodic sheet of thick cubes into the insulated bin. Its no mystery why this prolonged isolation has made me find the tiny 24-square-inch tables that Ive been cramming my food and my customers into for 20 years suddenly repellent. I want old regulars to wander back into the kitchen while I lift the lids off the pots and show them what there is to eat. It was a thrilling and exhausting first 10 years with great momentum. 5,000 restaurants have closed in New York city since March 2020. I still thrill when the four-top at Table 9 are talking to one another so contentedly that they dont notice they are the last diners, lingering in the cocoon of the wine and the few shards of dark chocolate weve put down with their check. Hardcover. If you wanted something expert to eat, you dined in Manhattan. I howled with laughter over the phone at the underwriter and his explanation. And now I understood abruptly: I would lay everybody off, even my wife. Our primary concern is the quality of the food we provide, and we strive to provide you with the tastiest and most recently prepared items possible. It turned out that abruptly closing a restaurant is a weeklong, full-time job. Long, lingering civilized Sunday lunches with sun streaming in through the front French doors. They declined to comment?What the hell is that supposed to mean?? My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Her sunglasses. Dianne de Guzman, SFGATE. You cant buy a $3 can of cheap beer at a dive bar in the East Village if the dive bar is actually paying $18,000 a month in rent, $30,000 a month in payroll; it would have to cost $10. I was in a yellow apron handling the dish pit, clearing the tables and running bus tubs, and I broke into tears for a second when I learned of Koiss order. Prune ownership declined to comment on the renovations and plans for (possibly) reopening. Id poured bleach and Palmolive and degreaser behind the range and the reach-ins, trying to blast out the deep, dark, unreachable corner of the saut station where lost egg shells, mussels, green scrubbies, hollow marrow bones, tasting spoons and cake testers, tongs and the occasional sizzle plate all get trapped and forgotten during service. at Prune, the highly regarded (and currently closed) restaurant on First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue Prune ownership declined to comment on the renovations and plans for (possibly) reopening. CreditPhilip Montgomery for The New York Times. It was a thrilling and exhausting first 10 years with great momentum. The stunning, Philip Johnson-designed landmark space that was originally the Bar Room of the Four Seasons where the "power lunch" was invented won't reopen until it can serve at 100 percent. What was I imagining 20 years ago when I was working all day, every day at a catering job while staying up all night every night, writing menus and sketching the plating of dishes, scrubbing the walls and painting the butter-yellow trim inside what would become Prune? I looked everybody in the eye and said, Ive decided not to wait to see what will happen; I encourage you to call first thing in the morning for unemployment, and you have a weeks paycheck from me coming. The 24-hour grocery with a salad bar and organic produce was cited for not price gouging during the shutdown and beyond. Of being rattled even by my own wife, Ashley, and her anxious compulsion to act, to reduce our restaurants operating hours, to close at 9 p.m., cut shifts. After the meeting, there was some directionless shuffling. It would make me feel terrible if Prune was nicely funded while the Sikhs at the Punjabi Grocery and Deli down the street were ignored, and simultaneously crushed if it wasnt. Its the government they are only fast when they are collecting your taxes.The James Beard Foundation kicked into high gear and announced meaningful grants of up to $15,000 and with an application period that was supposed to last from March 30 to April 3, but within hours of opening, it was overwhelmed with applications and it had to stop accepting more. And right when I started to feel backed against the ropes, I got a group email from a few concerned former Prune managers who eagerly offered to start a GoFundMe for Prune, inadvertently putting another obstacle in front of me: my own dignity. See more updates Updated 6h ago. Theres everyday sushi and rare, wildly expensive omakase sushi, as well as Japanese home cooking, udon specialists and soba shops. 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