Showing posts with label Stacie Joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stacie Joy. Show all posts

Friday, July 16, 2021

Prepping for 'And Just Like That' on Avenue A

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

On Wednesday afternoon, I was visiting with Nancy Preston, owner of Milk Money Kitchens at 50 Avenue A. (Read more about Milk Money, which provides commercial kitchen rentals and consulting services for food businesses, right here.) 

Preston was prepping her space between Third Street and Fourth Street for an HBO shoot for the "Sex and The City" revival titled "And Just Like That." (You probably noticed the production trucks along Avenue A!)

Featured in the spread for the assembled cast and crew: cupcakes named after the show's main characters. Today's scene involved cast members Kristin Davis and Mario Cantone (no Cynthia Nixon or Sarah Jessica Parker here). Executive producer Michael Patrick King was also on hand and took a moment to take a photo with Preston.

And thanks to Nancy for letting me stick around to watch the setup...

Monday, July 12, 2021

At WitchsFest USA — A Pagan Faire on Astor Place

The annual (b. 2012) WitchsFest USA — A Pagan Street Faire took place over the weekend... and on Saturday, a group of "magickally enchanting vendors" were on Astor Place between Lafayette and Broadway, where EVG contributor Stacie Joy met some of the participants...

Monday, July 5, 2021

From the EVG archives: Q-and-A with Lydia Lunch, underground legend, town crier

"Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over" is currently playing at the IFC Center (and on various streaming platforms) ... Beth B's career-spanning documentary retrospective is enjoying a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes...
   
Back in 2013, before an appearance at the Bowery Electric and the Pyramid, EVG correspondent Stacie Joy spoke with the singer, writer, poet, No Wave icon ... and you can find that interview at this link ... and some photos from her appearance at the Pyramid here.

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Help wanted: East Village restaurants look for staff, find few options

 Article and photos by Stacie Joy

When Sidney’s Five was preparing to open this spring on First Avenue, the owners of the café placed ads for waitstaff and kitchen help on Craigslist. 

The job search yielded just one reply for the back-of-house positions as opposed to the hundreds of responses the hospitality veterans may have received pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, only one person showed up to interview for a front-of-house slot. 

As East Village bars and restaurants move on from pandemic-era closures and dining-room restrictions, owners continue to face a dearth of available employees — yet another challenge in a tumultuous 15-month-plus period that saw sales plunge before the more recent uptick in business. However, some restaurateurs are having trouble meeting the demands with the lack of workers.

Even in casual conversations with owners and managers, I have been hearing “do you know anyone who may be interested in working?” for weeks now.
A search on Craigslist finds thousands of requests for front-of-house and kitchen staff in the city, and you can’t walk more than a block or two without spotting handmade signs in restaurant windows. (And this is not a local challenge. As The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, restaurant and bar employment remains down by 1.5 million nationwide since the pandemic began.)

Several East Village hospitality business owners and hiring managers talked with me about their recent troubles finding staff, why they think there’s a problem, and their outlook on the future.

Multitasking to make do

At Sidney’s Five, the four partners — Kai Woo, Walker Chambliss, Edie Ugot and David Lowenstein — find themselves multitasking. Due to the staffing shortage, they are responsible for every job: washing dishes, bussing and cleaning tables, cooking meals — even snaking gutters.
The café is offering a scaled-back menu until they can fully staff the kitchen. The people they might usually hire, actors and performers earning extra money as waitstaff, left town when theater venues shut down, the owners said. Some other longtime bartenders and cooks opted for different careers during the hospitality downturn of 2020.

“Much of the industry staffing left New York during the pandemic, and it will take time for everyone to return,” Lowenstein said. “In addition, there may be another group who are still here but are afraid to return to work because they live with relatives who are vulnerable to COVID. This group may be waiting until there is a higher vaccination rate in the city.”

“And there is another group who can collect sufficient unemployment benefits until September ... so returning to work doesn't make financial sense," he continued. "Finally, workers who remained in their roles and are likely happy with their workplace and compensation because of how desperate employers are to staff up.”

Lowenstein wonders if some kind of government cash bonus or tax benefit would encourage people to return to work.

“I don’t support removing/reducing the unemployment benefits early, the way many governors are doing across the country,” he said. “I would support some positive encouragement, though. It might also help the situation if state or local government-subsidized wages for new hires to offer a competitive rate. As a new restaurant, it is more difficult for us to offer $25/hour to a line cook when we aren’t even taking wages ourselves yet.”

At Van Da, chef-owner Yen Ngo talked to me after a long night of cooking and running her well-regarded Vietnamese restaurant on Fourth Street. 

Ngo’s executive chef is pregnant, and she and her partner (who also worked as a Van Da chef) have left to stay with family. 

Since Ngo cannot find someone who specializes in Vietnamese cooking, she’s behind the burners whenever the space is open — five nights per week.
Ngo cited several reasons for the shortage of restaurant employees. 

“When the pandemic hit, most restaurant workers were laid off, some moved out of the city. Some have had the time to reflect at home and want a career change,” she said. 

At Van Da, 20 percent of the staff went back to school, while another 30 percent moved out of the city. 

“Restaurant work is hard and often unappreciated. It is easier to find front of the house now since the jobs are easier, and the pay is better than being cooks or preps,” Ngo said. “I wish all workers would get paid according to their skills rather than [relying on] tips. It’s complicated. Most people do not understand how broken the system is if they don't run or own restaurants.”

Ngo and other restaurant owners have experienced other shortages, including supplies, as well as higher costs. 

“Finding good products [is difficult]. There are shortages of good beef and pork, not to mention the huge increase in cost,” Ngo said. “Our beef and pork prices more than doubled.” 

Julio Peña, an owner of the Italian wine bar and restaurant Il Posto Accanto on Second Street, said they have always relied on word-of-mouth for waitstaff. For kitchen crews and bussers, they have used employment agencies. Neither source is turning up many candidates these days.

Between unemployment benefits and career changes (he said that many back-of-the-house workers are now in construction), Peña is left with few options. 

“There’s not much you can do…trim your hours of operation, ask customers to be patient, serve fewer people, and hope it works out,” he said.

Receiving fewer applicants

Ike Escava operates three outposts of The Bean in the neighborhood. At the coffee shop’s Third Avenue location, Escava talked about his experiences in barista pandemic staffing.
“It’s been a [hiring] challenge, although better lately. It was tough to find people who want to work. We have signs on the doors of all of our restaurants, advertisements on Indeed.com, and people can apply on our website,” Escava said. “We are getting fewer applicants…people don’t want to work if they are getting, say, $700 a week from the government not to work.”

In his opinion, the government should offer the $300/week PUA Cares Act to everyone, including those who have re-entered the workforce. 

“It would be an incentive to return to the workplace, and people would still get their extra $300 weekly,” he said.

A hiring manager at an upscale health-conscious restaurant, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record, discussed his difficulties finding staff.

“The most common statement I’ve heard over the past few months is ‘it’s because people are still receiving unemployment benefits.’ I do feel this is a factor. It is also a simplification of reality,” the hiring manager said. “The reality is that these industries, as rewarding as they can be, are not easy places to work. Folks who have spent their careers serving others have often felt underappreciated. What this past year has offered was a glimpse into what it would be like to pursue other desires and skills while maintaining a healthier work/life balance.” 

Being based in NYC, the hiring manager said we had the unique experience of the mass migration out of the city. 

“This is something we are seeing that’s changing,” he said. “It seems like every week there are more and more people moving back or to the city for the first time.”

And as for finding and hiring candidates, “We have started casting a much larger net. The first thing we did was to diversify where we are looking for candidates. I believe we have job postings on four or five sites currently. We have also adjusted experience requirements, job history, etc., which is tricky because we also want to maintain our level of service and experience.”

Being kind and understanding

At the Korean-American restaurant Nowon on Sixth Street, chef Jae Lee expounded on the difficulties in hiring.

“It’s a very touchy subject to point out the reason why but let's speak about what the operators noticed. When unemployment benefits were to end last year, we saw an uptick on many back-of-house and front-of-house professionals applying for positions,” Lee said. “When the unemployment benefits continued, the applicants were no longer there. Every operator says the same thing; they are short-staffed, and it feels almost impossible to hire anyone.”

Regarding candidates, “We have posted ads on culinary agents and have boosted posts, which honestly did nothing to bring in more applicants. We also tried to hire through word-of-mouth, which didn’t work either.”

“We were able to hire two new front-of-house support staff who are college students,” he continued. “We are hiring green candidates who we can mold rather than hiring experienced professionals who don’t need much training.”

Lee closed our conversation with a sentiment I’ve heard from almost everyone interviewed for this story.

“Please be kind and understanding while restaurants and bars are trying their absolute best to make it work,” he said. “Please be nice to the staff who chose to come into work to serve and cook for you. We know we have work to do, and we are diligently working hard to get there.” 

Monday, June 28, 2021

Days and nights of Pride

In recent days, EVG contributor Stacie Joy attended several Pride-related events, including the Every Woman Biennial, Dyke March, PrideFest and the Queer Liberation March/Reclaim Pride. (As Gothamist reported, there were arrests in Washington Square Park following the Queer Liberation March.) 

What follows is a selection of her photos (check out her Drag March pics here)...

Thursday, June 24, 2021

A Visit to Brix Wines and Barnyard Cheese Shop on Avenue B

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

During my recent visit to sister shops Brix Wine and Barnyard Cheese, several neighbors dropped by to tell owner Beatriz Gutierrez how pleased they were that the longtime businesses were still up and running to serve the East Village.

In February, Barnyard temporarily closed on Avenue B between 10th Street and 11th Street with a rather cryptic note for patrons. However, the shop reopened in April — at the same time, Brix moved one storefront to the north, leaving a vacant space between the two businesses. 

Gutierrez told me more about the temporary closure, plans for the storefront that now separates Barnyard and Brix, and her deep appreciation for her customers. 
There’s been a lot of change in your shops recently. Can you explain what happened with the temporary closure, the moving of locations, and what you plan to do with the new space in the middle?

Barnyard's temporary closure allowed us to rethink the layout in anticipation of the city and state's capacity guidelines. We desperately needed to have people come into the store since most of what we offer is visual — the cheeses, jams, fresh bread, house-made prepacked foods, etc. We were able to do that, and it seems to be working. 

As for Brix, the closure of Barnyard gave us the time to move the wine shop to the space next door, which is bigger and provided space to carry and store more inventory. It was a blessing in disguise. 

The middle space — still in the conception stage — will be an extension of both Brix and Barnyard. A sort of Adult Learning Center, if you will, where we plan to have tastings, culinary classes, advanced and specialized wine seminars, cheese school, and private gatherings.  

How do you see the local economy shaping up as we continue to move into a recovery phase from the pandemic?

I see a better tomorrow for everyone. Although we are still recovering from more than a year of hardship caused by the pandemic, we managed to survive, and since reopening, the East Village has come back to support us and a collective sigh of relief has been breathed by everyone. 

The support, gratitude, and well wishes have been overwhelming and so appreciated. We are grateful to everyone who came back through our doors. 

As a small-business owner, what were some of the lessons learned from the pandemic?

So many things have been learned, but I’d say the top three are: Never give up. You have a purpose. Loyalty is everything. 
What do you have to say about your regulars and other patrons these past 15-plus months?

I'd have to say that they are the most supportive and wonderful customers a small business could hope for. We are able to exist because of them. We strive to create a place that provides something useful, serves it with pride and a good attitude, and make a visit something they can count on in the future.

I really believe our customers get that at Brix and Barnyard. They have come back and continue to do so. I can't thank our neighbors enough for sticking by us.  

What's next for the shops?

What's next is the middle store. It has to be something that enhances the neighborhood and fills a void. What do we need? Stay tuned.
Barnyard Cheese is at 168 Avenue B and Brix Wines is at 170 Avenue B. 

Barnyard hours:
Monday — Saturday: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Brix hours:
Sunday — Thursday: Noon to 8 p.m; until 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday