[Mark] Paradise said being on the second floor made doing business during the pandemic difficult, since he couldn't offer outdoor dining. Before the pandemic, Sunroom — which served breakfast, lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch — could seat about 65 people inside. Complying with COVID restrictions would be impossible because the tables were squeezed too close together to make distancing realistic, he said....When he closed because of the virus in mid-March, he remembers telling one of his managers they'd be closed for a month or two. Once restaurants were allowed to reopen at reduced capacities, he said he couldn't figure out a way to do it safely with the restaurant being able to "pay for itself." He continued to pay some of his 25 part- and full-time employees with the idea that they'd return when Sunroom reopened...."Then, it started getting longer and longer, and you just think, 'OK, well, what are we going to do?' And I didn't really see a light at the end of the tunnel," Paradise said. He could have stuck it out and tried to think of a way to open for UW-Madison's second semester, but he didn't know if the virus would be under control. "There were just too many question marks," he said. Paradise said his landlord was helpful in negotiating out of the lease, but he regrets not being able to continue until he could sell to someone younger "with new ideas and a little bit more energy than I have right now."
Sunroom (originally "Sunprint") has been a mainstay of State Street here in Madison since the 1970s. It's very sad to lose it.
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80 comments:
Mantra for 200 years: give me liberty or give me death. Many peoples’ mantra now: if anybody could die, everybody’s liberty goes. L
Marx was wrong. Religion is not the opiate of the people. Fear is the opiate of the people.
“We worked hard—but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into a profitable enterprise we were shut down by the city or state due to yet another Covid “spike”. I was to learn later in life that the government tends to meet any successful business by increasing taxes and regulations until it can no longer succeed, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of Progressiveness while actually producing confusion, poverty, and reliance on federal stimulus legislation largely aimed at bailing out the bankrupt states and cities.”
— Petronius Entrepreneurius
Maybe it will be over soon enough to save other businesses
“The first job of an antiviral therapeutic drug is to lower the viral load, and our initial data in 275 patients strongly suggested that the REGN-COV2 antibody cocktail could lower viral load and thereby potentially improve clinical outcomes. Today’s analysis, involving more than 500 additional patients, prospectively confirms that REGN-COV2 can indeed significantly reduce viral load and further shows that these viral reductions are associated with a significant decrease in the need for further medical attention,” said George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron.
With a Biden win we can expect that this drug, which seemed to cure Trump in a day, to be approved by the FDA along with the vaccine, HCQ, etc, etc will no longer be held back for political advantage.
Lockdowns are destroying so many lives. It’s criminal.
Evers must be recalled.
I recall going to Sunprint with some frequency back in the...hmmm...80s? At one point I knew why the name changed -- ownership change? Where Sunprint was before it moved upstairs and changed names is lost to time. I'm sorry to see it close.
"[H]e said he couldn't figure out a way to do it safely with the restaurant being able to 'pay for itself.'"
I wonder if he'll ever figure it out that he should never vote for Democrats.
During the plague, ships stayed out of port for 40 days to ensure the were fine to continue to dock and not spread the disease. They called in quarantine. Progressives around the world have decided 40 days isn't enough for a disease far less deadly than the plague. This isn't about a disease, and they don't care about small businesses.
I lost my job due to the pandemic but was fortunately able to find another. I feel terribly for those who are losing their businesses- in many cases everything they have. The pandemic warrants concern for sure, but so does this sort of devastation.
And don't worry, I'll be staying my new job soon so you won't have to bother with these bland, semi-relevant comments of mine. I'll still be reading the blog though!
The intended consequences of autocrats.
In retrospect, President Trump should have explained to the public months ago that COVID epidemics are seasonal and that the COVID-19 epidemic is not an exception.
There are biological reasons why such epidemics are seasonal.
Trump should have advocated publicly that most COVID-related restrictions should have been removed by the end of May. All the rules about masks, social distancing, group events, and so forth should have been removed.
The public should have relaxed through the summer and early fall.
Instead, we have been subjected to a continual, senseless hysteria that is significantly affecting the US elections.
Our restaurant with a lively bar winks and packs people in. The hugely popular chicken place, which started a take-out/delivery and basically did everything by the rules, still looks dead. If the snowbirds don't come, I fear it will close. Heartbreaking.
Also, State Street is looking somewhat like a ghetto. Good job, Mayor Lezbo.
He could have stuck it out and tried to think of a way to open for UW-Madison's second semester, but he didn't know if the government would be under control.
I am witnessing the wholesale destruction of small, under-captilized businesses in the two neighborhoods I've long loved in Brooklyn. What the virus doesn't kill in downtown/Atlantic Ave corridor, the vandalism and destruction from mostly peaceful protests push over the edge. Well capitalized, chain-owned business survive: smash the windows of a Bank of America, and they just get new windows. But the mom and pop pizza shops, restaurants and bars and the more modern quirky stores are closing for good. Besides the loss of character and culture, this is a massive wealth transfer from our yeoman class to the capital class, from small to big business, and will further erode the stability of our society by exacerbating a situation that was already pretty scary. So it's sad, but it's a lot else too.
Was Sunprint where the Credit Union is now? I really should have taken more photographs back during my student times. But film development was expensive back then.
Nice juxtaposition of “sunrise cafe” and Sunroom cafe.
Good and hard.
Government powers destroyed this place in the name of virus control. What will government powers threaten to destroy next? All of the surplus population that has been their target all along.
No sacrifice is to great for others to make to ensure that Democrats defeat Orange Man Bad.
“Once restaurants were allowed to reopen at reduced capacities, he said he couldn't figure out a way to do it safely with the restaurant being able to "pay for itself.”
“Safely” is a new liberal platitude like “science”. The teachers unions holding local communities hostage say “we want to open up, but we want to open up safely” when they have no intention of doing so. Unfortunately for this restaurant owner, if he defied any orders to survive he would have been vilified in the Madison community.
“Safely” isn’t the issue, "compliantly” is the real issue. Science and safety have nothing to do with the draconian lock downs. Especially in areas like Madison.
Multiply that story times thousands. Thousands of small businesses: restaurants/bars/cafes, boutiques/clothing stores, small service businesses. While our politicians are telling us we're science deniers if we don't follow their edicts, the real story is the damage to our economy and to people themselves. Society is grinding to a halt. People are becoming dismembered from their society. Their only connection is TikTok or Twitter or Facebook. Not good.
We have not seen the totality of the damage yet. This is like when a hurricane or tornado hits a town. You can see the wreckage from the NBC helicopter above, but you don't really see the totality of the damage until after the press has left and people are picking through the rubble, wondering what happened to the Ace Hardware, Bob's Diner, the local Shell gas station, the school, the church, etc.
Regulation not Covid kills another business.
Multiply that story times thousands. Thousands of small businesses: restaurants/bars/cafes, boutiques/clothing stores, small service businesses. While our politicians are telling us we're science deniers if we don't follow their edicts, the real story is the damage to our economy and to people themselves. Society is grinding to a halt. People are becoming dismembered from their society. Their only connection is TikTok or Twitter or Facebook. Not good.
We have not seen the totality of the damage yet. This is like when a hurricane or tornado hits a town. You can see the wreckage from the NBC helicopter above, but you don't really see the totality of the damage until after the press has left and people are picking through the rubble, wondering what happened to the Ace Hardware, Bob's Diner, the local Shell gas station, the school, the church, etc.
Thanks Evers!
Yeah. I feel like I have heard this a time or two. And I feel like some people have been shouting it from the rooftops for eight months and were continually told what ghouls they are because of the grandmas and the dying and the being the best person in the room.
wisconsin is Full of sensible people!
a resolution was introduced to the Associated Students of Madison (ASM) Student Council advocating for the removal of the Lincoln statue on campus.
The resolution states that the statue should be removed and replaced because it “serve[s] as remnants of this school’s history of white supremacy.”
freeing slaves==white supremacy
Sorta taken away?? SORTA?!?!?!
Sorry pal. Your business, the businesses of thousands of others, the employment and lives of millions have been ABSOLUTELY "taken away" and ruined....all in the orchestrated aim of trying to prevent Trump from being re-elected.
The Corona Virus is real. Just like any other flu bug, maybe a bit worse, but not a catastrophic pandemic like Ebola or the Black Death.
The complete overreaction and insane lockdowns are a deliberate attempt by Democrats to suppress the vote and stop Trump.
They saw Corona as a great club to hit Trump with. Too bad you got clobbered as collateral damage.
Ruin lives. Ruin the economy. As long as they get power...who cares who is "sorta" hurt.
Somebody needs to pay for this.
There’s a lot of this, and there’s going to be more. Coronavirus will be cured when it stops being an issue that can be used to damage Donald Trump and not one day before.
'It's sad that it was all sort of taken away,' owner said
I can't read the linked article. Did it perhaps mention if the owner typically voted for the people who took it away?
Destroying small businesses is something D's are OK with. "I can't go out and save every undercapitalized entrepreneur in America" - Hillary Clinton
Keep voting D, undercapitalized Mr. Paradise, and Madison lefties.
Meanwhile, in Sweden, they have never locked down, and their Covid 19 death rate is one or two per day. In a country of 11 million.
One might think that a leader elected by a majority of the people would consider that majority to be intelligent - capable of making individual decisions about how to respond to Covid in a reasonable and intelligent way.
One MIGHT think that, but one would be wrong. Apparently in places like Michigan and Wisconsin, the majority of people are only smart enough to vote for the leader, after which they’re all too stupid to make decisions regarding anything else and must be told by their leader what to do.
“all sort of taken away...”
By the virus, or the government?
I run a manufacturing business hands-on 12 hours a day. My job used to mostly entail developing new products and methods of production to increase sales, cut costs and increase profits and wages. Now the majority of my day involves jumping through hoops to comply with government rules from people who give us nothing, never offer any help, and seem to love throwing up endless work, and roadblocks to our success. I just want to work to help my people prosper, instead of filling out endless forms.
As a way to focus my effort, I often ask myself during the day why am I'm doing whatever I'm doing, and is it productive? The answers are increasingly "for the government", and "no".
We've already lost a lot of corner bars and dance joints in Missoula. Whole different world now. Just hipster breweries and distilleries. La-de-da.
Gone are the days when faculty and staff would take the footbridge over to the Eastgate Bar for "lunch" lol.
Good times.
Meanwhile, in Scotland pubs are allowed to open, but cannot serve alcohol (!) and must close be 6:00 PM.
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of small businesses destroyed by a disease that has infected 2.7% of the population, and kills 2.5% of those infected.
Most of my lefty friends think we are all going to die.
Has anyone asked the owners and reliable customers of Sunroom Café how they now feel for voting for Evers?
Tough shit. You may have saved one life. If Althouse has to wash her running shoes why shouldn’t you go broke?
Meanwhile:
"Traffic in Paris hit record levels just a few hours before a national lockdown came in to effect.
A cumulative total of 430 miles worth of tailbacks formed in and around the Ile-de-France region early on Thursday evening, as Parisians sought to escape staying at home in the capital. This represented a 30 per cent increase on previous records."
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Maybe elect a new mayor and governor?
Sad to see it go, it was a great space for a simple lunch and conversations and one of very few things that seem the same from the 80s Madison I first got to know.
Some spaces seem to foster a good conversation, this place was one I will remember fondly.
“ What the virus doesn't kill in downtown/Atlantic Ave corridor, the vandalism and destruction from mostly peaceful protests push over the edge. Well capitalized, chain-owned business survive: smash the windows of a Bank of America, and they just get new windows. But the mom and pop pizza shops, restaurants and bars and the more modern quirky stores are closing for good. Besides the loss of character and culture, this is a massive wealth transfer from our yeoman class to the capital class, from small to big business, and will further erode the stability of our society by exacerbating a situation that was already pretty scary. So it's sad, but it's a lot else too.”
Sure, that is happening. But a lot of those chains are not going to rebuild. Big companies, like BofA, self insure, and the projected cost of repair is factored in by the bean counters, when looking at where they want to do business. If it’s just broken windows, then, fine. But if the mostly peaceful protesters loot and burn out a Target or a Walmart, there is a decent chance that the economic hit(s) will make rebuilding economically disadvantageous. Moreover, I expect them to generalize - and be reluctant to move into locations with Dem governors and mayors more interested in appeasing the domestic terrorists, than protecting their businesses.
But a lot of what appear to be big businesses are really franchises. Think hotels and esp restaurants and convenience stores. Many can’t afford to self insure, and their insurance often won’t have covered the riot damage by the mostly peaceful protesters. So, again, you have these riots destroying the livelihoods of the business owners, and making rebuilding problematic.
A note - the use of “mostly peaceful” protestors is a documented, well developed, technique by AntiFA. Everyone in the mob has their assigned duty. Some are there to commit violence. Some to provide everyone with water and food. Some are there as “press” to document everything - from their point of view. Some to provide first aid. Some to provide security (which includes preventing anyone else from recording events in a non acceptable way). Some are lookouts, tracking the police. Etc. And then they recruit a crowd of stupid sheeple to cover their operation with mostly peaceful protesting. They hide within the crowd they created. Moreover, a lot of the looting is instigated by AntiFA operatives breaking the glass so that the crowd they are operating within can easily get into a store. Time and time again, a white guy (or less frequency, gal) dressed as AntiFA, will run up to a glass door or big window in a store, break it, then retreat, without taking anything, while the black crowd that they were embedded in are exhorted to loot the place. Little of this is spontaneous. Rather, it is carefully planned. That makes it a criminal conspiracy.
Iman said...
Thanks Evers!
No. You should be thanking tim and Ann and Meade and the other stupid sheep.
Tim is still bleating on this thread.
Sad. I've been trying to support the local businesses I like as much as I can. But if it's a restaurant that's not really good for carryout and/or outdoor dining, it's pretty hard to do. I'm not really worried about myself, but I do have a 97 year old father that I am in contact with and help out a lot. I think people should get on with their lives and we should protect the vulnerable. He's vulnerable and I have to act accordingly.
By the way, if Trump wins Michigan, I think he should give Whitmer a big thank you for her help.
“ We've already lost a lot of corner bars and dance joints in Missoula. Whole different world now. Just hipster breweries and distilleries. La-de-da.”
That’s what comes from living in a progressive enclave. Out of the big cities in MT, life goes on, little different from any other times. Outside the obvious places, few are going to obey Dem Gov Bullock’s idiotic rules. He’s an idiot. I just hope that he hasn’t gotten enough out of state money (as Tester did a couple years ago) to buy the Senate seat he is running for.
I should not that through a quirk of AT&T TV, even though we have been in PHX for a couple weeks now, we still get MT (mostly from your Missoula) local channels, and I have never seen this sort of saturation political advertising. An average commercial break might have two Bullock ads, back to back then two Daines ads, back to back, running against each other for the Senate, followed by ads for Bullock’s current job as governor. And then you have the same thing at the next commercial break. They are so repetitive- The Republicans voted to eliminate coverage for preexisting conditions (I.e. they voted to repeal Obamacare). The Dems got their families rich from insider deals, etc.
AllenS said...
Has anyone asked the owners and reliable customers of Sunroom Café how they now feel for voting for Evers?
10/30/20, 9:09 AM
LOL! Good one!
If anyone bothered, they would get a blank stare, even after slowly explaining the direct cause/effect of that prior decision of theirs to the current situation. The light bulb just will NOT come on.
Sort of like trying to explain algebra to a hamster.
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of small businesses destroyed by a disease that has infected 2.7% of the population, and kills 2.5% of those infected.
It kills far less than 2.5% of those infected. More like 0.5 to 1%, and the age distribution is strongly skewed towards the elderly.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/09/26/what-is-the-death-rate-for-covid-19-coronavirus-what-this-study-found/#1282eecf5c46
Bruce Hayden said...
What the virus doesn't kill in downtown/Atlantic Ave corridor, the vandalism and destruction from mostly peaceful protests push over the edge.
10/30/20, 9:36 AM
That is also a hoot!
Why would the virus kill ANY downtowm business? It was not and would not have been the virus. It was always and ONLY the local government's reaction to these events. First the lock-downs and then the support of the riots. The local government KILLED all of these businesses.
The only question is are the residents of these areas intelligent enough to noodle this out and to then make rational decisions based on this? Sadly I think the majority answer is no.
We haven’t begun to see the effects of the Chinese flu. By next year a half billion people may be starving in the third world. If western ag output declines as much as I think it’s going to it may be more. Right now western food exports are what’s keeping them fed. And they won’t or can’t feed themselves.
I loved Sunprint. It was a nice place to go to catch up with Madison natives returning to town.
The government should be paying bars, restaurants, and gyms to stay closed, to keep the infection rate down to low enough levels that kids can return to school. The fact that bars are allowed to remain open while schools remain closed is insane.
We've been getting a lot of takeout and delivery where we can, but its mostly from restaurants in our neighborhood--the downtown businesses must be getting crushed by the lack of people working at the offices. OH--and people who blame evers for this? Umm there isn't any government order making the offices closed. That's all a decision that has been made by private companies. As long as the virus remains rampant, people will be working from home and will not be going out to eat. Kill the virus, the economy will recover.
He's better off moving to a solid red state. There won't be many people left in Madison anyway once the sane(ish) liberals leave and the campus stays shuttered in favor of remote learning...
Quayle said...
"Mantra for 200 years: give me liberty or give me death. Many peoples’ mantra now: if anybody could die, everybody’s liberty goes. L
Marx was wrong. Religion is not the opiate of the people. Fear is the opiate of the people."
I'll take that a step further. Free stuff is the opiate of the people. Fear is what pushes them to surrender their inalienable rights in exchange for free stuff (including the illusory promise of safety).
tim in vermont said...
"Maybe it will be over soon enough to save other businesses"
Commerce can resume as soon as infectious disease has been eliminated.
@DBQ at 8:17am
Amen...
"Commerce can resume as soon as infectious disease has been eliminated."
It will end when a liberal is elected president.
Many businesses have closed, never to reopen.
Many government employees have been furloughed—but they are still getting paid.
The response to this “pandemic” has been a debacle.
Eating out has become such a hassle now days. If you can't get out of the office to sit and eat a meal with your co-workers why bother going to pick up take out for lunch. When you go do your weekly grocery shopping you can just pick up sandwiches and salads from their deli. They are just as good as you get from your average sandwich shop. Pick up a few of them for the week and save the money on over priced drinks, and you don't have to go outside and get in your cold car to pick them up each day.
Eating out use to be fun and convenient, now thanks to government regulations it is neither. There is no reason to think people will go back to it once regulations change in a year.
As long as the virus remains rampant, people will be working from home and will not be going out to eat. Kill the virus, the economy will recover.
How cute. The virus will stay around like flu. Corona viruses include the common cold. It's not "rampant," by the way. It is just increased testing that gives that illusion.
Michael K said...
The virus will stay around like flu. Corona viruses include the common cold. It's not "rampant," by the way. It is just increased testing that gives that illusion.
10/30/20, 11:06 AM
There you go slinging around your "science" and getting facts all over the clean surfaces! That is just enough of that young man! The counter was JUST sanitized so stop; we don't need anymore facts around here!
"When he closed because of the virus"
Because of the reaction to the virus.
RK said...Also, State Street is looking somewhat like a ghetto. Good job, Mayor Lezbo.
--
What? You don't like Satya's commissioned outdoor plywood "Art" gallery?
Yeah..being told the area is unsafe after 7pm and seeing a crazy black guy calling patrons racist while carrying a baseball bat had no impact on business.
"As long as the virus remains rampant, people will be working from home and will not be going out to eat. Kill the virus, the economy will recover."
Behold a big part of the problem.
Like most viruses, this one's likely to "remain rampant." Since we generally don't kill viruses, which can't be "killed" anyway, the economy would not recover at all. (Though fortunately, not being stuck in viral groupthink, the economy has just staged the strongest quarterly comeback in history--not "recovered" yet, but getting there, all the more amazing with whole sectors still slammed and Dems doing their best to tank the economy.)
Anyway, best-case scenario is building up immunity, making COVID part of the annual virus mix, and protecting people at greatest risk--i.e., living with it.
Real recovery starts with being realistic.
Karen B and tim in vermont cheer this restaurant owner doing his part to stop Winnie Xi Flu.
That $15 minimum wage will set them right, I'd guess.
If only $0 per hour did not exist.
Mike Sylvester left links the other day to a European guy outlining why the lockdowns cannot work and that the infection rates are not affected by masks.
I now denounce myself for hating Democratical Science-y Stuff, because reasons.
Sunday was the last day for one of my favorite places, a biker bar way up a one lane road in the mountains near me. Between the virus and the wildfires they couldn't make a go of it. You can't buy propane when you have no cash flow. You lose a lot of inventory when you lose refrigeration because the power is out.
We did go out to eat on Saturday, at a nearby restaurant. It was an interesting experience. I felt obliged to mask up a little too often for comfort, and I was wondering the whole time about the HVAC system filtration.
It wasn't "sort of taken away." It as destroyed by government action.
A coffee shop near a major University had a very young, low-risk staff and clientele. If the State and City cared, there was a way to work this out.
Ahh, the rioters woulda burned it down eventually anyway.
And King County (WA) just announced yesterday their employees are now required to work from home until July 5, 2021. July 5th. Of next year. More than eight, fucking months from now.
That's the problem with this so-called pandemic. Regular people are losing their entire livelihoods while the public employee sector has never had it better.
I just don't see how our country survives no matter who wins next Tuesday. And I'm to the point I don't care anymore.
Umm there isn't any government order making the offices closed. That's all a decision that has been made by private companies.
You can't possibly be this stupid. There are government mandates dictating who can and cannot operate, and have been since March.
Pull your fucking head out.
If only Wisconsinites had elected a non-moron for a governor.
I remember that place.
Fuck Evers. Dictionary definition of a bloodless bureaucrat.
"If the State and City cared, there was a way to work this out."
If you want to get rid of Trump, you need victims. "Take one for the team" time.
We have a favorite deli run by Macedonian immigrants. Great folks, work like dogs and it was a going concern till corona lockdown. Breaks my heart cause they sunk it all in on the American Dream. Many, if not most, of the ethnic restaurants are first or second generation immigrants working toward the promise that the fear purveyors have cancelled. Local "news"papers shout about "new cases" whereas you have to scour up the data showing deaths flatlined buried in the back pages. Remember 15 days to flatten the curve? Ha! The governor is playing it now "Till We
Cure it". Hospitals NOT overloaded at all. Prog Governor, a Soros purchase, killed our state's American Dream. I'm in the last generation of free range citizens.
Oh, and Tim in Vermont, tens of thousands get a vaccine and die of the flu every year. Peter Pan you are.
Begonia said...
OH--and people who blame evers for this? Umm there isn't any government order making the offices closed. That's all a decision that has been made by private companies. As long as the virus remains rampant, people will be working from home and will not be going out to eat. Kill the virus, the economy will recover.
Democrats are just stupid people.
What a shame. I guess there was no way to temporarily open a different location for outdoor service? Maybe prepare the food at the main restaurant and cater it over to the serving location? Something?
Maybe even with an effective government's tax relief assistance or something...wild ideas, I know.
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