‘Pushing them toward that brink’: Local restaurants close, risk profits due to severe weather
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Local restaurants are once again opening for indoor dining – but not before losing thousands of dollars during a week-long winter storm.
As snow and ice coated western Oregon and southwest Washington, these businesses have continued to lose money in sales and food. And after a three-day weekend celebrating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, those costs add up.
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Solstice Wood Fire Cafe in the Columbia River Gorge says they lost more than $50,000 after five days of closed doors. Co-owner Aaron Baumhackl said that amounts to about 40% of their sales.
“We want to give our staff hours, and that’s really – other than safety – number one is keeping them employed or especially our hourly employees who need to pay their bills,” he said.
And while the I-84 closed in both directions due to icy road conditions, they weren’t able to get supplies or people into their restaurant.
“We’ve definitely lost product,” Baumhackl said. “We support local, and so when we don’t do business, our local economy feels it as well. …We do rely on business coming from out east. We do rely on daytrippers coming from Portland, and also in the wintertime, skiers.”
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Solstice hopes to open by Friday, but the owners say they’ll take it day by day.
Meanwhile, restaurants in downtown Portland are also taking a hit. Kelsey Glasser, the owner of Arden in the Pearl District, said most of their reservations were canceled this week while they wait for the ice to thaw out.
“All our regular expenses are getting paid,” she said. “We just don’t have any money coming in.”
Thursday night was their first service after a two-week winter break. Glasser said it’s a tough way to start the year.
“We kind of hope that we can hit the ground running come Jan. 15 to recoup those losses,” she said. “Pushing it on a third week is a little stress-inducing, but hopefully we will be busy soon again.”
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The Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association says some restaurants are already struggling because they never made a full recovery after the pandemic.
Greg Astley, the director of government affairs at ORLA, said this could be “the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back” for some restaurants.
“Anything that’s going to negatively impact a restaurant really does have the danger of pushing them toward that brink where they are going to have to make the decision to unfortunately close,” he said.
Gov. Tina Kotek declared a statewide emergency Thursday night to help local counties receive additional resources and funding during the winter storm. ORLA says it reached out to her office about helping businesses, but it’s unclear if they’ll get that money.
Stay with KOIN 6 as we continue our winter weather coverage.
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