Popular Souplantation buffet-style restaurants, temporarily closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, may never reopen.
New public health restrictions on businesses and restaurants are understandable, but make it difficult for buffet-style eateries to reopen, company CEO John Haywood said Thursday.
“The FDA had previously put out recommendations that included discontinuing self-serve stations, like self-serve beverages in fast food, but they specifically talked about salad bars and buffets,” Haywood told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Since mid-March, restaurants in the Coachella Valley and throughout the state have been closed except for take-out or delivery to help stop the spread of coronavirus. While Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced that some retailers and other businesses could reopen, with limitations, restaurant dining rooms are to remain closed, for now.
The chain employs about 4,400 people at its 97 Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes all-you-can-eat restaurants – including about 50 employed at the La Quinta location.
The La Quinta Souplantation, at 79-705 Highway 111, next to Costco, opened in December 2008.
City officials hadn’t received word on Thursday that the restaurant was closing, nor had the Greater Coachella Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Restaurants do not know what will happen with buffets as a result of the coronavirus, so many are planning on not opening again, said Gil Villalpando, assistant to the city manager and economic development director.
The all-you-can-eat buffet style restaurant offered salads with fresh ingredients, made-from-scratch soups, baked goods, pastas and pizza starting at about $10 per person.
Souplantation was started by a couple of surfers with a vision to create a healthy place to eat. The first restaurant opened in 1978 in San Diego.
The chain was taken over by San Diego-based Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. in 1983, and grew to 130 locations nationwide, with restaurants outside of California called Sweet Tomatoes.
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2016 and closed many of its locations. In 2017, the company was acquired by two private-equity groups – Perpetual Capital Partners and CR3 Capital LLC – and Haywood was named CEO.
The serve-yourself model of the Souplantation chain resulted in steep losses in business as the coronavirus crisis rapidly worsened in February and March, said Robert Allbritton, chairman of Washington, D.C.-based Perpetual Capital Partners, a private investment firm that bought the company following the 2016 bankruptcy filing.
“We spent two years researching and trying to improve things and actually got the business turned around,” he said. “We were growing the number of guests and were in the process of renovating the restaurants with new fixtures, carpeting (and) signage as late as January. We felt great about it. But I’ve got to tell you, when the virus hit, we went from 100% to 70 to 30 to 10 % that fast, before the restaurants closed down and the company ran out of money in one week.”
USA Today and City News Service contributed to this report.
"may" - Google News
May 09, 2020 at 01:22AM
https://ift.tt/2WeKjcu
Coronavirus impact: Souplantation restaurants may permanently close, including La Quinta location - Desert Sun
"may" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3foH8qu
https://ift.tt/2zNW3tO
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Coronavirus impact: Souplantation restaurants may permanently close, including La Quinta location - Desert Sun"
Post a Comment