Halifax Area Restaurant Owner Closes After Mental Stress Of The Pandemic
HALIFAX – Jeff McLatchy and his wife Peggy have had enough. In late November, the Nova Scotia government announced, for the second time, that restaurants had to close in-dining services in Halifax. Even before the government announcement, the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the city were keeping people away from eateries, such as their Dartmouth restaurant Seventy 3.
The couple had been banking on the corporate Christmas season to help buoy the winter months. But, with no in-dining services allowed, those events that bring in a lot of revenue for restaurants were all cancelled.
The McLatchys made the gut-wrenching decision in early December to close Seventy 3, the Dartmouth restaurant that served Canadian fusion cuisine, for good. But the decision wasn’t just a financial one. The past year has been especially hard on restaurant owners mentally and emotionally. McLatchy said he and his wife just couldn’t go through another shutdown.
“It’s unsettling; it’s a mental strain because of the uncertainty associated with the industry. It’s undeniable that there’s going to be a mental health crisis following this virus and what it’s done over this year,” said McLatchy.
“When you’re forced to close, you’re losing, not just the revenue, but you’re losing that part of your life.”
McLatchy and his wife are also part-owners of Celtic Corner, the popular Irish pub that opened in Dartmouth in 2005. The couple opened Seventy 3 in 2015 as a “casual-upscale” restaurant – the type of place that had piano music on the weekends and served great food from local ingredients. Some of their dishes included curried goat and beef rib cooked with Asian sticky sauce.
Seventy 3 may not have been as popular as Celtic Corner, but it had a a loyal customer base. After McLatchy made the closure announcement on Facebook, he was taken aback by the outpouring of supportive messages.
“People were genuinely hurt for us that this kind of situation caused us to close,” he said.
“I don’t have a lot of good things to say about social media, but I’m really impressed with the way the community tried to rub our backs, so to speak.”
Seventy 3 was able to survive the first government-enforced lockdown because they pivoted quickly to focus on takeout and delivery.
“We were in a much stronger position than many people. Everybody was shut down at the same time,” explained McLatchy. “Everybody lost that first little bit. But we were very, very, quick to embrace the notion of online takeaway and takeout ordering.”
“We immediately revamped our website and our online ordering platform to make it easy and simple. That allowed us to pay our ongoing bills.”
When restaurants were able to reopen in June, Seventy 3 was able to utilize its outdoor patio to accommodate more customers safely. This allowed the restaurant to stay afloat during the difficult Covid summer, even it wasn’t thriving. Between June and late November, the restaurant operated with a 30 per cent drop in revenue compared to pre-pandemic times.
“Is that good? No. Is it the end of the world? No, because you make adjustments,” explained McLatchy.
During the fall months, McLatchy could feel the stress and pressure of the second wave of Covid-19. People were staying home more compared to the summer; people were on social media saying restaurants should be shut down again, due to the high number of exposures happening in the sector. It became clear that another shutdown was just a matter of when, not if.
“It was so upsetting that we kind of avoided talking about it and just hoped that we could make it through this season,” said McLatchy on those stressful, emotional, months.
“But this is the character of this pandemic: it’s always hanging around in the background like a dark cloud. You just don’t know when the storm is going to hit or how you’re going to be affected by that black cloud.”
“There was that ominous feeling that the government was going to shut down the sector again.”
Despite everything he has been through as a business owner, McLatchy harbours no ill will towards the government that decided to lockdown the restaurant sector. At the end of the day, he says politicians’ hands were forced by “an act of God”. McLatchy also said he refuses to be a “Negative Nelly.”
“I don’t know if they (the government) can prop up this industry forever and ever, and restaurants like Seventy 3 are the ones that are going to go first,” he said.
Seventy 3’s closure means six people are now permanently laid off. But McLatchy told those employees that they are welcome to join the team at Celtic Corner when things reopen again.