Restore Restaurant Holdings operates two restaurants, which are within blocks of one another in downtown Minneapolis. Each of them has been caught up in Operation Metro Surge, but for different reasons.
Chloe, a French-inspired bistro, is in the Canopy by Hilton hotel, a historic building in the city’s Mill District. Some members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, have been staying there, so residents periodically hold “noise protests” at night to disturb the agents’ sleep. Protesters also associate the restaurant with the Hilton, even though Chloe is not owned by the hotel.
Pro-ICE groups, meanwhile, have labeled EaTo, an Italian eatery on a busy corner in the Mill District, as anti-ICE. The restaurant has been bombed with one-star reviews while a flurry of robocalls tie up the phone lines so customers can’t get through.
But maybe the biggest problem is simply the lack of business. Workers have been staying home, depriving the restaurants of crucial lunch business, while suburbanites opt not to go downtown for dinner to avoid the protests and the clashes between city residents and ICE agents.
“The biggest problem we have is we have no idea how long this is going to last,” Matt Monroe, cofounder and CEO of Restore, said in an interview. “COVID was so uncertain, but we started to get some programs and some plans. This one, we have no idea.”
The full economic impact of Operation Metro Surge, and the community’s reaction to it, is just now coming into full view, particularly for the area’s restaurants. In Minneapolis alone, city officials estimate that local businesses are losing $10 million to $20 million every week.
Many restaurants are closed, particularly those run by immigrants. Some are on restricted service to keep agents out. Those that are open are getting fewer customers, enough so that it’s reminiscent of the pandemic six years ago.
Many operators are taking to social media to plead for customers to come in. “We’re already hearing from people who can’t make payroll,” Dennis Monroe, cofounder of Restore and an attorney who works with multi-unit businesses, particularly restaurants. “It’s just a matter of time” before some restaurants close, he said.
A makeshift memorial along a stretch of Minneapolis known as "Eat Street."
Operation Metro Surge began in December, starting with the Twin Cities and expanding to the rest of the state. The Department of Homeland Security called it the largest immigration enforcement operation in history, with some 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents, in a state with an estimated 1% of the nation’s illegal immigrants. Some 700 agents have since left.
But protests and reaction to the operation intensified, particularly following the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The shooting death of Pretti took place along a stretch of Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis known as “Eat Street,” an area known for its restaurants. A makeshift memorial is in front of a Malaysian restaurant and a sandwich shop and across from a doughnut shop called Glam Doll Doughnuts.
Many businesses post warnings on their doors saying that agents are not allowed inside without a warrant. When an ICE enforcement action takes place, it will frequently draw neighbors blowing whistles warning others of agents’ presence, which can lead to conflict that engulfs a neighborhood.
“When there is a large action in an area, you can tell,” said Stephanie March, who writes for Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine and hosts a local radio show. That can keep locals from eating out and others from visiting area restaurants.
Many areas affected most by the operation were also Ground Zero for the 2020 riots spurred by the murder of George Floyd, particularly Lake Street, an east-west corridor in South Minneapolis that runs through some of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. Many businesses along the stretch were damaged or destroyed during the riots.
The corridor features several cultural malls, such as the Karmel Mall, which features numerous small shops and restaurants, including several coffee shops and bakeries, along with accountants, travel agents and other businesses. In normal times it is a hub of the local Somali community.
But many of the shops have been closed since December while foot traffic in the mall has been sparse.
“A lot of them have closed due to the lack of customer and foot traffic, due to fear of the ice raids,” Marie Campos, marketing manager for the Lake Street Council, a local business group that estimates local businesses lost $46 million in revenue in December and January.
Three Kings Day is a particularly important holiday for the corridor’s Latin American businesses. It was a far more muted celebration this year. “People were simply not celebrating,” Campos said.
The area was only recently starting to recover from the pandemic, the riots and the construction that followed. “We were starting to feel good about the direction the community was headed, that we would be able to thrive and not just survive,” Campos said. “This is devastating.”
Restaurants in many immigrant communities are struggling with weak traffic.
Downtown Minneapolis was slow to recover from the pandemic, as workers didn’t return to the office and others were scared by crime, parking or other fears. Those people had only recently started coming back, bringing life to the skyways that connect most of the district’s buildings so workers can stay warm during the cold months.
“It felt like Minneapolis was really at a tipping point in terms of getting back to normal,” Dennis Monroe said. “It wasn’t quite there, but it was almost quite there. And then this happened.”
Travail Collective, which operates a group of several popular restaurants around the Twin Cities, has seen traffic to its locations decline 20% to 50% depending on the location. “People are weary of going out to eat while there’s so much unrest,” said Mike Brown, a partner with Travail. “Over the last two and a half months we’ve seen a very steady decline of folks coming in.”
Many restaurant operators are going public to plead for business, for themselves and for other restaurants.
“Like so many of our peers we are hurting right now and need your help,” Bauhaus Brew Labs, a brewpub in Northeast Minneapolis, said on a Facebook post last week. “Minnesota winters are tough on our industry even in the best of times which, combined with the surge of DHS activity wreaking havoc on our communities, has created a perfect storm for us and many of our neighbors.”
It’s not just Minneapolis restaurants. Many immigrant-owned restaurants throughout the Twin Cities have temporarily closed. Brothers Taqueria, a Mexican restaurant with two suburban locations, just announced on social media posts that they would reopen this week following a weeks-long closure.
Some restaurants have locked their doors to keep agents out, such as an Ecuadorian restaurant on Central Avenue in the suburb of Columbia Heights, and the Wrecktangle Pizza on the corner of Lyndale and Lake with a huge “ICE out of MN for good” sign.
Other restaurants are either short-staffed or take special efforts to get people to work. Chloe and EaTo workers will give rides to their Hispanic employees, who hide in the back seat.
Handwritten closed signs have become a common sight at many Minnesota restaurants.
The uncertainty of it all has weighed on many operators who worry they do not have much time before they run out of cash. Dennis Monroe noted that many lenders and landlords in the area are more understanding of restaurants’ cash crunch, because of the extraordinary circumstances.
But while the pandemic led to quick help in the form of Paycheck Protection Plan and other funds, the federal government seems unlikely to provide rescue funds this time.
The Minneapolis Foundation late last month announced an Economic Response Fund providing $3.5 million in grants to small businesses, run through community organizations, to help businesses pay their bills. The foundation also helps to run the Salt Cure Restaurant Recovery Fund, established to help restaurants make it through to the spring.
The application process is expected to launch this week and will be vetted by a committee with knowledge of the community. The grants can only go to businesses with a Minnesota tax ID and the fund is working with Latino organizations to make sure the process is accessible to all levels of the community.
The fund has received inquiries from around the country and about 3,000 donations have come in so far, including one from a group of restaurants in Seattle that pooled their sales for a day.
“A lot of restaurants aren’t comfortable putting out a call for help,” March said.
Some restaurants have raised funds for their staffs, many of whom either can’t go to work or have seen reduced hours. Wrecktangle Pizza raised $250,000 for its workers but, March noted, “they still have to pay their lease.”
Travail launched a Gold Dining Ticket Sweepstakes to raise funds to support its restaurants and employees and encourage people to continue dining at independent restaurants around the state.
The sweepstakes is free and customers can enter on-site at one of the group’s restaurants, including Travail Kitchen and Amusements, Pig Ate My Pizza, Stargazer, Graze Food Hall and Dream Creamery. One local winner will receive a year’s worth of complimentary dining across all Travail Collective restaurants.
One national winner will receive round-trip airfare to Minneapolis, local transportation and four nights at a hotel along with a tour of each of the Travail Collective restaurants. Donations will go to the restaurants’ staff, with 10% going to Prism Food Shelf in Golden Valley, Minnesota.
“If you can, come into the restaurants as much as you can,” Brown said. “Maybe the one next to your house. Try to get in there and support them as best you can.”
“Everyone’s goal is to get to May and patio season,” he added. “That’s a natural time when Minnesotans turn the page and everyone has a reason to get up and get out and enjoy themselves.”
How to help
To donate to the Salt Cure Fund, click here.
To enter the Gold Dining Ticket Sweepstakes click here.
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