Lady Gaga’s father Joe Germanotta recently shared his struggles of being a restaurant owner in New York City during the pandemic. He shut down Joanne Trattoria after losing thousands of dollars in inventory and says that delivery is simply “not enough” to keep his business afloat. Here’s what he has to say.
In an interview with Fox News Business, Germanotta said he is one of the thousands of New York restaurant owners who is concerned about the future of their business. He made it no secret that these last several months have been “absolutely tough” in the hospitality and restaurant industries.
Lady Gaga’s Father Says His Restaurant Is Struggling During The NYC Quarantine Shutdown
“All the restaurant owners are anxious to get back up and running,” Germanotta said. “We’re hoping that now that there’s a vaccine and they’re starting to deploy more, that we can get back to semi-normal operations.”
He also opened up about his difficult decision to close his restaurant doors temporarily.
“I made the decision to give [my employees] time off. It was too much ‘You’re open,’ and then a week later, ‘You’re closed,'” Germanotta recalled. “I locked the door. I’m not doing any deliveries or pick-ups now.”
“Every time I turned around I was throwing out $5,000 to $6,000 worth of inventory and food because it’d go bad,” he added.
If that weren’t enough, Germanotta also said that he is none too pleased over how many of the industry’s restrictions vary throughout the state.
“I think there’s inconsistent rules between cities within the state, which isn’t really fair,” Germanotta said.
“There is a population that wants to dine, but they’re typically a younger crowd. The older crowd tends to want to sit outside still. I talk to local operators every day because I see them every day. I live right by my restaurant. They all say the same thing – ‘It’s just not enough.'”
During the very beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020, Germanotta told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo that he’d already seen a 70% drop in business due to the pandemic but he vowed to take care of his employees at Joanne Trattoria.
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