How a Small Bar Battled to Survive the Coronavirus: An Update

[0] Hey, it's Michael.

[1] This week, the Daily is revisiting our favorite episodes of the year, listening back and hearing what's happened in the time since they first ran.

[2] Today.

[3] The Hatch.

[4] It's Monday, December 28th.

[5] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bavarro.

[6] This is the Daily.

[7] Across the country, nearly 100 ,000 small businesses have now shut down permanent.

[8] because of the pandemic, federal relief funding has stalled, and yet some cities are now preparing for a second round of shutdowns today.

[9] For the past six months, my colleague Jack Nickas has been documenting the experience of a single neighborhood bar in the Bay Area of California to understand the consequences for its owner, bartender, and cleaner.

[10] It's a Tuesday, October 6th.

[11] Jack, tell me about The Hatch.

[12] So the Hatch is the classic neighborhood bar.

[13] I moved to Oakland in late 2015, and one of the first things you do when you move to a new city is you find your local dive bar.

[14] Right.

[15] At least if you're me. And pretty quickly, I knew it would be The Hatch.

[16] It's just a really perfect neighborhood bar in my view.

[17] It's unpretentious, relaxed.

[18] The beer is cheap.

[19] You can always find a seat.

[20] And I ended up just spending a lot of time there.

[21] You know, my friends and I would gather around uneven tables upstairs and spend long nights talking until close.

[22] And we'd watch the NBA playoffs on a bed sheet that hung from the ceiling.

[23] And we just, we made it our place.

[24] Good morning.

[25] Thank you for joining us here on mornings on two.

[26] It is Tuesday, March 17th.

[27] So when the pandemic hit, and I realized that small businesses across the country were going to close, my mind went to the hatch, and I decided, let me follow this place for a few months and see what happens.

[28] And so I check in on the hatch on March 17th.

[29] This is the day after Gavin Newsom, California's governor, has ordered the state's bars and restaurants to close.

[30] So, yeah, why don't we just, do you want to my report, by the way?

[31] Yeah.

[32] And when I get there, I find the bar's owner who went to Cichingue.

[33] Everyone calls him poncho.

[34] And he's packing up the bar's booze and basically is in the early hours of trying to figure out what to do with his bar.

[35] And it's a moment of enormous uncertainty.

[36] I think the way that I've been processing it is what can we do to stay open in some capacity, right?

[37] And so you guys are going to pursue this.

[38] You're going to do the takeout.

[39] We're going to try.

[40] So at this point, he's thinking of moving to takeout.

[41] and it's pretty much the only option available for bars and restaurants besides shutting down.

[42] We're going to see what it looks like, what it entails, because I have no blues still, right?

[43] And I'm saying, well, what does that look like?

[44] I'm curious what you're thinking at this point about whether Pancho's going to be able to pull this off.

[45] Well, I'll say that when I first met Pancho, he actually struck me as sounding pretty relaxed about everything that was going on.

[46] And I didn't really know him, but as I learned his story, I got the sense that this is a guy who really has had to figure out how to deal.

[47] Yeah, so I was born in Chegutu, and that's basically...

[48] Antro grew up in the 1980s in a rural village in Zimbabwe, and he was the youngest of 13 kids, and when he was 10 years old, his dad, who was an academic, got a job at the University of Iowa.

[49] His siblings were much older than him, and he traveled alone.

[50] with his parents, cross the world to Iowa.

[51] So we get there, and we are the only black family there, right?

[52] And people would be like, you talk funny, right?

[53] And they were like, why do you talk funny, right?

[54] And I'm just like, all these things, like, where I was so unsure myself.

[55] Then at 14 years old, something pretty drastic happened.

[56] Which is what?

[57] At that point in time, there was some sort of dysfunction that was happening in the family, right?

[58] That to this day, I still have no clue what happened.

[59] So when he was 14, his mother came to him rather suddenly one afternoon and said, I'm going back to Zimbabwe, and I don't want you to see your father anymore.

[60] We're splitting up.

[61] But I have rented an apartment for you, paid the rent for a few months, and here's some spending money, and you're going to live on your own.

[62] And I was like, okay.

[63] And just I got packed your stuff.

[64] Let's go.

[65] Is it ready for you?

[66] Yeah, we've already set up, right?

[67] So it was kind of, well, surreal, for one, right?

[68] And the way that I was like, wait, what happened, you know?

[69] Suddenly, you know, he was a 14 -year -old kid living on his own.

[70] How were you making it do?

[71] Were you building at groceries or takeout?

[72] No, I had like two or three dishes that I knew how to make.

[73] Like, I know, like, pasta and eggs.

[74] That's like my go -to, right?

[75] And, like, the best peanut butter sandwich is ever.

[76] So that was just it.

[77] And then, like, whatever we had at school, like, whatever school, lunches that were happening.

[78] I would do like the frozen dinners.

[79] I learned how to budget really early on.

[80] I was like, I'm going to budget.

[81] And just be like, what can I eat?

[82] That can actually last me a long time, right?

[83] So he would wake up in the morning alone as a 14 -year -old in an apartment and make himself breakfast, dress himself, wash his clothes, go to school.

[84] And he just did that.

[85] He was a kid acting as an adult.

[86] But at night, as other kids were going home to their families, he was going home alone to his apartment.

[87] I mean, like, there's definitely a lot of loneliness, right?

[88] I mean, like, basically goes up hard to sleep at night, so I'd go, like, on these long night walks.

[89] It's like, um, thinking about, um, the future, really, right?

[90] I used to call them the future walks, right?

[91] And just being like, well, what are the things that you want to do?

[92] Or like, the thought that I would always have would just be, I'm like, well, can't get any worse I'm like this is where you're at now and it can only go up right and it does go up within a few months he moves in with his best friend's family and you know he finishes high school goes to college in Minnesota then he moves to the Bay Area becomes a bartender and a few years after that he decides to go it on his own and he looks across the bay where rents are cheaper and he finds this old Hawaiian barbecue joint with orange carpets and he turns it into the hatch and very quickly Poncho found success.

[93] And when you say success, what do you mean?

[94] They were busy from the outset essentially.

[95] He said that, you know, in his first months he was serving drinks and red solo cups and he was sleeping upstairs in a couch but the place was pretty packed.

[96] So fast forward to this past spring, the hatch is employing 17 people and then the shutdown happens and Poncho has to lay most of them off.

[97] And those employees are waiting to see if Poncho can keep the bar alive, survive the shutdown, and ultimately bring them back.

[98] And what do you know about these people who were let go?

[99] So essentially at the hatch, like most bars, there is a front of the house and a back of the house.

[100] And the front of the house are the bartenders who were musicians and artists and photographers.

[101] And, you know, they're mostly in their 20s and 30s.

[102] and they're trying to make rent and, you know, some spending money to go out with their friends.

[103] And then there was the back of the house.

[104] And these are people in their 50s who are trying to survive and trying to support children.

[105] So I wanted to know what this shutdown would be like for people on both sides.

[106] And so in early April, with the help of a translator, I started talking to Maria.

[107] Okay.

[108] Okay.

[109] Hello, Maria.

[110] Hello.

[111] She's someone I had never seen before at the hatch because she would come in at the crack of dawn to scrub the floors and clean the tables where my friends and I drink.

[112] And what did you learn about her?

[113] Maria is 55 years old, and she is from the Mexican state of Micho Khan.

[114] Yeah.

[115] And they're brought her to know.

[116] Yeah.

[117] Solterra.

[118] Yeah.

[119] Yeah.

[120] And when, you know, In the late 1990s, her husband crosses into the United States without documents, and pretty quickly, she follows.

[121] So her and her husband and Maria's young stepdaughter all kind of start this new life in America.

[122] And, you know, working on fake documents that cost about 20 bucks.

[123] Her husband is washing dishes and cooking and smoky kitchens across the East Bay here in the Bay area.

[124] Maria's collecting cans to get by, and together they have two more kids.

[125] So fast forward to a few years ago, the kids are grown, and she gets a job at the hatch as a cleaner.

[126] And she makes about 400 bucks a week.

[127] So what does she do after a poncho has to make these layoffs?

[128] Well, after the shutdown, her entire family is out of work.

[129] So her stepdaughter loses her job at a Toyota dealership.

[130] Her son is no longer working in construction.

[131] Her husband is out of work.

[132] And her daughter, who is in her senior year at high school, is taking classes from home.

[133] And really, this looks like what a lot of American families were going through.

[134] But the difference here is that because Maria and her husband are undocumented, There's no $1 ,200 stimulus check coming her way.

[135] You know, there's no additional unemployment insurance coming her way.

[136] California has made $500 per undocumented immigrant available.

[137] But she's too afraid to apply for it because she figures it's going to put her on a list.

[138] So how is she getting by?

[139] So they're, you know, going to a food bank, they're eating more simple meals.

[140] Okay.

[141] And Maria suffers from intense back pain, and she even has to stop going to physical therapy to deal with that.

[142] But her biggest worry is her rent that she owes in just a few weeks, and she doesn't want to get kicked out of her apartment.

[143] And so she's not sure what she's going to do?

[144] So she was saying that she had a little savings that she was keeping for her daughter's graduation.

[145] She was going to graduate this year and she had $800 for the graduation.

[146] Really the only savings at this point that she has is this $800 that she's been saving as a graduation gift for her daughter.

[147] She doesn't want to spend it, but she says she has no choice.

[148] Can you ask her how she's feeling?

[149] in the Yeah, okay Maria how what is what's the what's what you're what's what you what is what you're seeing now with much trice and economically is what my more me I'm preoccupied the rent because because like this is a house particular no I don't know I say I'll let's I'll pardon the Mm -hmm.

[150] So that's what I'm more preoccupied.

[151] Yeah.

[152] Okay.

[153] So she's feeling a lot of sadness and, and she's very worried, mainly because of the, of the economy.

[154] She's very worried.

[155] I understand.

[156] Maria tells me that she's just desperate to get back to the hatch.

[157] She's much less worried about getting sick from the coronavirus than she is about.

[158] making money and paying a rent.

[159] So, Jack, who is the other person from the bar that you followed?

[160] So the other person is Abel Olson.

[161] He's a 34 -year -old bartender, and he's exactly the kind of guy you'd expect to be tending bar at a place like The Hatch.

[162] He's got a bushy mustache, he wears vintage t -shirt.

[163] He has lots of tattoos he can't explain.

[164] Abel started working at the Hatch last fall.

[165] He got along with the staff, loved the customers.

[166] He was doing DJ nights upstairs.

[167] Hey there, Jack.

[168] How's doing, bud?

[169] People, how are you?

[170] Oh, good, man. Just, you know, killing time at home, playing a little video game.

[171] Trying not to go outside.

[172] So it turns out that the shutdown came at a really bad time for Abel.

[173] He just went on a big grocery run.

[174] He just paid off an overdue $270 phone bill.

[175] and essentially he tells me he's got about $20 in his pocket.

[176] I live, you know, check to check.

[177] I live tip to tip as a bartender.

[178] So when, you know, I have $20 in my pocket, that is, you know, could be kind of a scary thing, but it's a temporary thing.

[179] So now he's hunkered down and quarantined with his girlfriend who's out of work as a bud tender at a weed dispensary in San Francisco.

[180] Honestly, and we're not spending a dime, you know, I like, we both kind of canceled all of our subscription services, and besides paying bills and food, we're, you know, spending zero dollars, so.

[181] But these are circumstances that are somewhat familiar to Able.

[182] He spent much of his childhood in Portland with a single mom who was sometimes out of work, and he also lost his job as a bartender before when he was in his 20s and kind of was familiar with the unemployment process.

[183] And I remember the system being, you know, very obnoxious.

[184] So, and I was, you know, fully prepared for that kind of bureaucracy again.

[185] So the day after the lockdown began, he immediately applied for funds.

[186] He applied for government assistance.

[187] He applied for this bartender fund.

[188] He basically fanned out and looked for every source of money that he could get.

[189] That's the biggest problem right now is, you know, just waiting for these things to come through and, you know, going food chopping and trying to kill boredom, and that's kind of about it.

[190] Okay.

[191] All right.

[192] All right.

[193] Stay healthy, man. You too.

[194] Thanks.

[195] So as of early April, Abel is waiting to see if he's going to get government assistance.

[196] He's applied for it.

[197] Maria is not eligible for any of that assistance and afraid to seek the benefits she could get from California.

[198] And so she's running out of money.

[199] Absolutely.

[200] Hey, Pancho.

[201] Hey, there you are.

[202] How's it going, man?

[203] So as I was talking to Abel and Maria in April, I also reached out to Pancho to see how takeout was going.

[204] Well, you know, I started the takeout deliveries to a risk, which was building it from scratch, right?

[205] When you did, you said you did deliveries yesterday or today?

[206] Yesterday.

[207] Yeah, I did deliveries yesterday.

[208] And how many did you actually do?

[209] I did one delivery.

[210] Yeah.

[211] So takeout is not going well.

[212] In the first week, the hatch had nine orders, and I was one of them.

[213] Wow.

[214] So that brought in $369 in the first week, and that obviously wasn't going to be enough to help the business survive.

[215] Mm -hmm.

[216] And on top of that, he had, you know, multiple other complications.

[217] Yelp blocked all our ads.

[218] So that was a bit of a setback for sure.

[219] The fact that he got locked out of the hatches.

[220] Yelp account because of an overdue advertising bill.

[221] Wait, so they blocked all your ads?

[222] Can you clarify that?

[223] What do you mean?

[224] It says that we have to pay to have a bill that we need to pay.

[225] So, you know, the number one platform that people use, we can't advertise that we're open.

[226] We're doing deliveries and takeout on it because they blocked us out.

[227] And why is that important?

[228] It was important because without Yelp in some ways, it was very difficult for them to tell their customers that they were even doing takeout now.

[229] Instead, I would watch the Hatch's Instagram account post these increasingly desperate pitches to get people to come in.

[230] One of the Instagram posts I remember is just Robin waiting bored by the phone being like, please call me. But people weren't.

[231] No, obviously not.

[232] I mean, it was a really difficult start for the takeout business.

[233] And meanwhile, he was on the hook for more than $8 ,000 in rent.

[234] That was upcoming.

[235] He had two cooks and his manager.

[236] on salary, and he had no money coming in.

[237] Mm -hmm.

[238] And at this point, what are his options?

[239] So around that time, Congress had approved a $349 billion package of small business loans for people just like Poncho.

[240] Right.

[241] PPP.

[242] Exactly.

[243] So these are essentially forgivable small business loans that are designed to help small business owners just like Pancho, who are in this situation.

[244] to get a lifeline and keep their businesses alive and keep paying their employees.

[245] So immediately, I want to jump on this because I suspected everyone I jumped in on it.

[246] Immediately, Poncho applies for one of these loans through Chase Bank.

[247] So put in the information, and they're like, great, good job.

[248] They go, we'll send your confirmation email.

[249] Email never showed up.

[250] And it's just completely a Kafka -esque experience.

[251] And then five days later, got another email.

[252] and they're going, you can apply now.

[253] And I was like, I'm pretty sure I did.

[254] Oh, no. I'm already applied.

[255] Poncho understood that he was competing against literally hundreds of thousands of other small business owners to get this money.

[256] Then we were like in panic mode.

[257] And I was like, oh, shit, we need to reapply now, right?

[258] Especially at that point, I'm like, oh, we are in so much trouble.

[259] So reapplied.

[260] And then Chase was like, sorry, you're not eligible at this time to get a loan.

[261] You know, something like, oh, my God.

[262] This is the word.

[263] Wow.

[264] What a mess.

[265] Oh, the mess.

[266] Yeah.

[267] And how would you describe his state of mind in this moment?

[268] Because this is a pretty grim situation.

[269] It was.

[270] This is a real crossroads for the hatch and for Poncho.

[271] And I know that Poncho is disappointed, that he didn't get the money.

[272] Yet when I'm talking to him, he still has this kind of dark humor about the situation.

[273] I appreciate that you've got, like, kind of gallows humor, you know.

[274] I love that you can laugh about it.

[275] Well, it's one of those things where my boy, I can't really afford to be down in the dumps about it.

[276] I think I have to be proactive because literally people are depending on it, right?

[277] But so as long as this thing for me to try, I have to keep going.

[278] All right, man. Thank you so much.

[279] I really appreciate it.

[280] Wow, thank you.

[281] All right.

[282] Talk soon.

[283] Bye.

[284] It is Friday.

[285] It's May 1st and May Day, Pam.

[286] Yes.

[287] The Bay Area Shelter and Place Order extended through the end of this month.

[288] Here in the Bay Area, we are still a ways out from restaurants reopening.

[289] This hits Oakland especially hard.

[290] A lot of folks across the country here in California and in Oakland dealing with the new unemployment numbers that came out.

[291] Again, just dismal numbers.

[292] One in five workers without a job in California.

[293] Many Bay Area renters are in a similar.

[294] that's true.

[295] Like, I don't think we're really planning on staying here for super long.

[296] How long you guys been here?

[297] Since October.

[298] I started, I just like, I got this apartment and the, um, job at Hatch at the same day.

[299] In the beginning of May, I ride my bike over to Abel's apartment, and he lives by the highway, kind of on the edge of West Oakland, and he is in the backyard fixing up his lowrider bike, and we start chatting.

[300] And we start chatting about the past few weeks have been.

[301] Have you been talking to many other people at Hatch recently?

[302] Yeah, I talked to Pancho and Langley.

[303] And how is Able doing?

[304] He's actually doing pretty well.

[305] Yeah, yeah.

[306] I mean, I'm going to have a check's pretty great.

[307] You know, and some interesting things have come out of that, actually.

[308] He's been getting unemployment now for three weeks, and through this combination of, state unemployment assistance and this new federal money from the stimulus law, he's making more than $1 ,000 a week.

[309] And that's double what he made at the hatch.

[310] And he said it's more than he's ever made in his life.

[311] Still more than what you've been making.

[312] Yeah.

[313] Okay.

[314] So what have you done with the monies?

[315] So my computer actually died.

[316] Okay.

[317] The screen cracked in half, so I bought a new laptop.

[318] Nice.

[319] Okay.

[320] Yeah.

[321] How much it was that the laptop?

[322] It was like 900 bucks.

[323] Okay.

[324] Cool.

[325] But that'll, you know, that's...

[326] Yeah, not anything crazy.

[327] It's just like kind of something that works good.

[328] Sure.

[329] Paid rent.

[330] Paid rent, yeah, just paid rent, just all the bills.

[331] And food.

[332] So rent, food, bills, and then...

[333] Yeah, I mean, that's about...

[334] And so what did you tell you about his life during this period?

[335] I mean, he told me he was surprised that the government worked as intended here he was very skeptical at the beginning but now you know the money was coming in and he was actually starting to pay off a bit of debt and is your girlfriend still were not working or?

[336] She's still not working she yeah so it's actually been surprisingly it's been pretty good it's been pretty good it's nice to yeah we didn't have we've never had a day off together okay so now we're like, you know, getting our fill of that.

[337] That's good?

[338] Yeah, it's good, man. Good, good, good, good.

[339] Yeah.

[340] Do you feel like at certain points you try to look for a job?

[341] Are you just going to try to ride it out?

[342] I mean, I'm going to just ride it out for now.

[343] Especially good in the fact you're getting the money, right?

[344] Yeah, the extra money goes through July.

[345] Yeah.

[346] So for Able, the safety net is very much working.

[347] It is working as intended.

[348] And Abel now has the luxury of being able to stay at home.

[349] And he's concerned about the virus.

[350] So he's not super motivated to get back to work.

[351] So I'm walking through downtown Oakland and heading over to the hatch right now.

[352] It's the first time I've actually been here.

[353] So I go to see Pancho with the hatch, and at this point, business really has not picked up.

[354] He's making roughly 5 % of what he made before the pandemic.

[355] He has burned through roughly $20 ,000 in emergency funds he had set aside and another $20 ,000 of his own personal money.

[356] And he has new problems.

[357] A few days earlier, someone had broken into the window above the door, climbed in, and robbed the hatch.

[358] Yeah, so it came in, like laptops, cameras, napkins, yeah, liquor.

[359] This guy cannot catch a break.

[360] He really couldn't.

[361] So how much total shit did they steal?

[362] Do we have it currently, that we can, that we can, Keep track of about maybe $13 ,000?

[363] Okay.

[364] Although it turned out that despite the entire mess with the loan process, he ended up getting one of these PPP loans from the government.

[365] Yeah.

[366] So what happened with that?

[367] We got the money.

[368] Okay, that's good.

[369] And it's a nightmare.

[370] Okay.

[371] But he said it turned out to be a nightmare itself, and it was putting him in a bind.

[372] Uh, 72 ,500?

[373] Something like that.

[374] Okay.

[375] Why is it a nightmare?

[376] It is a nightmare because we, like, basically I now have, what am I, seven weeks left or something like that?

[377] So these small business loans, they come with specific rules.

[378] And specifically, Poncho has to spend 75 % of the money on payroll within several weeks.

[379] The problem was he was running a takeout joint now.

[380] He didn't need 75 % of his staff.

[381] Take Maria.

[382] Poncho doesn't have the need for a cleaner like he did before the pandemic.

[383] And even if he was able to bring Maria back, she's undocumented, so her wages wouldn't count against the payroll money he has to spend.

[384] Right.

[385] And then there are people like Abel.

[386] He's making more money on unemployment than he did at the hatch, so he has no incentive to come in and get a paycheck.

[387] I called, like, um, this guy they used to work.

[388] working before and I was like listen I was like what are you doing right now right I was like you should come like just like just like do some same clock in a couple things like that he's like I'm gonna pay you really well because I got to move this money anyway and he's like yeah well the thing is I'm making $4 ,000 a month right now unemployment and and he's like so eh he's like I don't really want to come to work so So I can't even get anybody to take this money.

[389] So then I'm talking to the accountant, and he's like, you're in the same boat as a lot of other people.

[390] So suddenly he's sitting on top of all this money and he can't use it the way he probably most needs to, which is to pay the rent.

[391] Exactly.

[392] And this was a common criticism of PPP from small business owners.

[393] You had to use this money towards bringing people back to work and fast.

[394] But in reality, you don't need this many employees to come back to work when your business is so small.

[395] slow, and on top of that, many of your employees would prefer to stay home and continue to collect unemployment.

[396] But as I was talking to Poncho about this in the bar, I get an alert on my phone.

[397] You guys saw San Francisco just put out dates right now?

[398] Made about eights?

[399] Yeah.

[400] For what?

[401] For Space Wars now?

[402] Yep, it just came out.

[403] So they said San Francisco was setting some dates for outdoor dining and eventually even indoor dining for the first time since the lockdown began.

[404] I'll tell you right here.

[405] So I think a June 13th is for restaurants, outdoor restaurants.

[406] July 13th is like indoor restaurants.

[407] That's crazy.

[408] Outdoor restaurants is June 15th?

[409] Yeah.

[410] And it hits poncho that, you know, Oakland probably will follow suit soon.

[411] Right.

[412] And if so, that means he just has to survive maybe just a few more months before he can get back to normal.

[413] That's encouraging.

[414] Interesting.

[415] I'll try it.

[416] We'll be right back.

[417] It is Wednesday, July 15th.

[418] A neighborhood in Oakland is fighting over a wild peacock.

[419] The Bay Area is taking another big step into reopening today.

[420] That means outdoor dining gets the green light to reopen officially.

[421] Restaurants say reopening outdoor dining is a relief.

[422] This has been kind of a confusing process.

[423] for a lot of people involved, Christian.

[424] Yeah, a very confusing process for a lot of people, and a lot of businesses following this very closely, as you said.

[425] So, Jack, by the summer, bars and restaurants were allowed to open for outside dining in Oakland, just as in San Francisco.

[426] So what did that look like for the hatch?

[427] So on July 28th, the hatch did reopen for outdoor dining.

[428] So they set up a few tables out on the sidewalk, and they built a little takeout window into the kitchen.

[429] And, you know, they were starting this new model and hoping that it worked.

[430] And what did that new model mean for the three people you have been following?

[431] So for Maria, she probably was most eagerly awaiting the hatch to reopen of any of the people I had been following.

[432] But one day when I called her cell phone, her husband picked up and he was sounding panicked and actually told me that he was wheeling her to the emergency room because her back pain had gotten so bad.

[433] Wow.

[434] Okay.

[435] Hello, Kirla.

[436] Okay.

[437] Hello, Maria.

[438] How are you?

[439] When I called back a few days later, I found out some terrible news.

[440] Yeah, well, at the end of course, they had been diagnosed with cancer in her hip.

[441] So all that pain she had been experiencing was probably from that, from the cancer.

[442] Right.

[443] And now, you know, she essentially couldn't walk.

[444] Fortunately, she does have some health insurance through a county program that provides health insurance to undocumented immigrants for a small fee.

[445] She is getting some treatment, but it is still in the early stages.

[446] It's not exactly clear how everything will turn out.

[447] But of course, she's in no shape to get back to cleaning the hatch.

[448] So before Maria really hadn't wanted to apply for this $500 benefit that California made available to undocumented residents, but now her situation had grown so desperate that she was willing, to take the risk and try to get that money.

[449] So has she actually gotten through or had the line to figure that out?

[450] She didn't.

[451] She called 90 times, 90, 90.

[452] 90.

[453] Wow.

[454] Yeah, 90 something times.

[455] And they never got through that.

[456] It's so hard and they just can't get it through.

[457] Poncho, however, did need a cleaner.

[458] And so he decided to give her husband some hours.

[459] The only problem with that was Maria joked that her husband wasn't a great cleaner.

[460] And Pancho confirmed that.

[461] But it sounds like the decision to hire her husband wasn't really about whether or not he was a great cleaner.

[462] It was about keeping the family financially, I guess, on their feet.

[463] Right.

[464] He was trying to help Maria and her family in this moment.

[465] Okay.

[466] Thank you very much, Maria.

[467] That you have a good day.

[468] And, look at me much.

[469] For favor, God, God, God, care.

[470] I'm sorry, too.

[471] Thank you, Maria.

[472] Thank you.

[473] Thank you.

[474] Thank you.

[475] Okay, adieu.

[476] And what about Abel?

[477] Eric, how's it going, bud?

[478] Hey, man, how are you?

[479] So I called him up, and he told me he was back at work.

[480] So first day, you know, when the staff all came back together, what was the mood like?

[481] Oh, man, I think we were just really happy to see each other after, you know, I don't know, four months or whatever, you know, had a round of shots, and then had our mask back on and got back to work, you know.

[482] It was positive, you know, I think we all really liked working there.

[483] But the bad news was that, like Maria, health crisis had also emerged in Abel's life.

[484] So, mom is diagnosed with cancer, and so she's going through chemo right now.

[485] Oh, Jesus.

[486] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[487] So what kind of cancer?

[488] Colon cancer.

[489] It's definitely survivable, but there's definitely a reality that, you know, my mom could die from this.

[490] Mm -hmm, mm -hmm.

[491] So, um, it, um, it's funny about this thing.

[492] You know, it's like, you, how to put it, uh, it's like life still goes on in, in the pandemic, you know, it's like, you kind of expect, like, because there's this thing going on, you know, it's like that nothing else kind of like will fall apart to you and they're like, Well, oh shit.

[493] Well, this too, right?

[494] His mother lives in another state, so he was concerned about his ability to go visit her by going back to work.

[495] But he was also at the same time grateful to have his job at the hatch as a distraction from everything that was going on.

[496] And what about the unemployment benefits that Abel had, which seemed like they were more than he was making at the hatch?

[497] Did that affect his decision?

[498] It did.

[499] The extra federal benefits that were showing up in his unemployment checks were set to expire at the end of July.

[500] So Abel felt he had to get back to work in order to pay rent.

[501] What are you making in a shift right now?

[502] I think it's like a hundred bucks, basically, like a shift before taxes.

[503] So it comes out to like 80 -something.

[504] And then, you know, tips can vary dramatically, but it's probably...

[505] $30 or less.

[506] He only had a few shifts a week now, and before the pandemic, he was making roughly $500 a week, and now it was a bit over $200 a week.

[507] Wow.

[508] You know, all I can kind of do right now, you know, I just try to stay positive as much as I can.

[509] Yeah, man. Well, good luck with, you know, the rest of the podcast, man. And, yeah, you need to know anything else.

[510] I'll take a new one.

[511] Thank you.

[512] Feel free to give a call.

[513] Yeah, thanks, sir.

[514] Bye.

[515] All right.

[516] Appreciate it.

[517] Hey, Pancho.

[518] Jack.

[519] Hey, how are you?

[520] How are you?

[521] Pretty good.

[522] You know, just hanging out of the home.

[523] So I got in touch with Pancho a few days after the reopening.

[524] Yeah, it was good seeing them, especially like after months, you know.

[525] So there's the part where I was like, yes, I'm glad everybody's here.

[526] But I did have this moment when all the staff came in.

[527] And I was like, I wondered this is just a fool's errand.

[528] You know?

[529] I was like, I wonder this is what we're doing here, right?

[530] I was like, and maybe all we're having is this moment where we're like, we get to see each other and we get like two more months of this before everything completely implodes, you know?

[531] So now, you know, it seems everything's falling into place.

[532] And yet, Poncho has a lot of doubts about everything.

[533] You know, first of all, he's worried that there's going to be a second wave and a second shutdown.

[534] And then he's also really worried because Oakland was changing rapidly in front of his eyes.

[535] I mean, the unemployment was high.

[536] in the city.

[537] And he was just seeing, you know, on a weekly basis, his friends and his customers leaving the Bay Area.

[538] And then he was worried that the people who were left behind in Oakland wouldn't be enough to make his business survive.

[539] For me personally, the best way to describe it is I was in the hatch, my friend, just stopped by.

[540] And she was like, you look old.

[541] she's like you look so old I was like yeah I was like I feel old I was like I feel I was like yeah I was like that is a correct assessment of that you know and she's like yeah she was usually just like so super cheery all the time and I was like it's kind of hard to be cheery because it's like everywhere you look there's some sort of fire and there's just like so many unknowns like it's just hard to predict anything you know and it's like and you're constantly second guessing if you're making the right decision in any given moment, it's almost like a war of attrition where you're trying to see, like, who can hold on the longest, right, and get to the other side.

[542] And then you're like, am I doing a good enough job with that?

[543] It's like, and am I even the right person to be doing that, you know?

[544] Being in this situation, like, you feel helpless, right?

[545] Where you're like, I was like, man, I'm really good at this, but I'm only so good.

[546] So, Jack, it has now been six months since you started following Pancho and the staff of the Hatch.

[547] Ultimately, what did this experience tell you about what it takes to keep a small business alive right now?

[548] I think what it takes is a true reopening of the economy.

[549] And I think it's pretty clear at this point that that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

[550] And so that means that a place like the hatch is left teetering on the edge.

[551] And that also means that people who rely on the hatch to survive, you know, its employees are also teetering.

[552] And these are people who were already on the edge.

[553] These are people who can't work from home.

[554] These are hourly workers who don't have many, if any, savings.

[555] And so it's going to remain an important question of what happens to these people over.

[556] the next months and even years.

[557] And I think it's important to remember that, you know, this is the story of my neighborhood bar, but it's also the story of your neighborhood bar.

[558] This is the story of everyone's favorite bar or restaurant.

[559] And remember that before the pandemic, the hatch was successful.

[560] I mean, this was a place that was, you know, pretty full just about every night of the week.

[561] And now poncho is scraping to survive, you know, for the sake of the hatch and for the sake of his employees.

[562] And yet he's finding that there's really only so much he can do.

[563] Jack, thank you very much.

[564] We appreciate it.

[565] Thank you.

[566] So I'm walking down 15th Street.

[567] It is Labor Day weekend in Oakland.

[568] And we're just coming up to the hatch.

[569] How you doing?

[570] I have learned to have no expectations in 2020.

[571] Like, how could you predict there's going to be wildfires?

[572] You know, with the wild.

[573] I mean, we had to shut down again yesterday.

[574] Okay.

[575] Two days ago?

[576] Because the smoke, the air quality.

[577] Yeah, it was in the red.

[578] So anytime he hits orange, we just end up just shutting down.

[579] So that means like you've now got a business that is required to be outside and you can't be outside essentially.

[580] Yep, pretty much.

[581] You can't be inside because of a deadly virus and you can't be outside because of deadly smoke.

[582] Yeah.

[583] Hey, Pancho, it's Jack.

[584] Hey, Jack.

[585] How's it going?

[586] Good.

[587] How are you?

[588] Just in the office, just doing some work, you know, catching up.

[589] Nice.

[590] Are you in the office at the hatch?

[591] Yeah, just hanging out here.

[592] Following a major spike in infections and hospitalizations, much of California, including Oakland, has gone into a second lockdown.

[593] A few days ago, Jack called Pancho back.

[594] to see how both he and the Hatch are doing.

[595] You know, it's the second shutdown, and obviously the holiday season, it's just, you know, it's a lot for sure.

[596] I think I gave myself 72 hours of a pity party, and then I was like, okay, you got to get back to work.

[597] I was like, she's got to get back to work.

[598] So I just got back on my phone, started calling up, distributors that I know just seeing like what kind of like deal they possibly have called up a bunch of other lenders that I know just to see what's going on and because you know nobody knows how this new stimulus package is going to look like when it rolls out like if you're ready to receive money before are you going to get more money or is it going to somebody else right you know or is there even anybody else to go to right is there even anybody left out there for it to go to.

[599] So I've just been calling around and obviously talking to the landlord and working stuff out with him.

[600] You know, like he called and he's like, hey, can I get rent?

[601] And I was like, Mr. Kim, you know, you can't get rent.

[602] And he just sort of laughing.

[603] He's like, yeah, yeah, no. I thought I'll try.

[604] I was like, come on, man. Yeah.

[605] So, yeah, you know, hopefully like that relationship is strong enough to last to help a lojah this goes to.

[606] hopefully like you know he sticks it out with us and just uh gives us a bit of a break while things recalibrate you know so and just to just to clarify i mean how how are you making ends of meat right now is it basically taking on debt oh yeah we're just taking on debt right now it's like in the beginning of the year we were gushing blood and we're like okay great you know like uh these stitches and bandages are working i think we'll begin to heal and then pull back the band -aided the stitches, and I was like, okay, we're back here again.

[607] I was like, we are back here again.

[608] Oh, man. What have you seen among a lot of your peers in Oakland?

[609] Because, obviously, we've been talking to you and the Hatch as sort of an example, an illustration of the larger industry.

[610] What's happening across Oakland in the restaurant and bar industry?

[611] Oh, it is.

[612] brutal.

[613] That would be the kindest word I could possibly use.

[614] It's just, it's bad.

[615] You know, like, I was in San Francisco the other day just kind of walking around.

[616] I couldn't believe it was like a Wednesday.

[617] And it was just a ghost town.

[618] And I was like, can't do them downtown San Francisco?

[619] I was like a ghost town.

[620] I was like, you know, and there's a bunch of restaurants that were so prominent and they're not working.

[621] They can't work.

[622] You know, they're shut down.

[623] and who knows that they'll ever open up, you know?

[624] So it's just not really feasible for any restaurants to survive.

[625] Unless you have strong, you know, I believe the ones that have strong relationships with their landlords and the landlords are either outright owned their properties and are willing to work with some sort of deal with their tenants, that's the only way to survive.

[626] Yeah.

[627] I mean, it's brutal.

[628] It's brutal out there.

[629] I mean, how much you've kind of touched on this, but I just really want to get your direct.

[630] answer on this.

[631] I mean, how much longer do you think the Hatch can survive?

[632] So I would say we would probably be able to last maybe a month, two months, maybe.

[633] And that's like, that's like an extremely optimistic two months.

[634] It's an extremely optimistic two months, but you know, who knows?

[635] Who really knows what's going to happen?

[636] But hopefully all the things that we're planning, we can actually get to enjoy them next year and look back on this and just say, man, we survived the craziest year ever in this industry and laugh about it.

[637] All right.

[638] Thank you, my friend.

[639] I appreciate it.

[640] Thank you.

[641] All right.

[642] Stay safe.

[643] Be well.

[644] Bye -bye.

[645] The Hatchez bartender, Abel, had been working there until the most recent shutdown.

[646] He still hopes to return if the bar reopens.

[647] Maria, who cleaned the hatch, has been undergoing chemotherapy and has not been working.

[648] But she says that her health has been slowly improving.

[649] California said it will lift its lockdown when its hospitals have more than 15 % capacity in their intensive care units.

[650] Today's episode was produced by Daniel Giemedt and Luke Vanderbuk, with help from Michael Simon Johnson and Alexandra Lee Young.

[651] It was edited by Lisa Chow and Lisa Tobin and engineered by Chris Wood.

[652] That's it for the daily.

[653] I'm Michael Babaro.

[654] See you tomorrow.