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Strike Notes: Diary of a Foodie Under Duress
During these heady days of such important and ground-breaking union activity, the adrenaline rush has left me hungry.
Musings of a One Track Mind:
How does a Brooklyn Foodie handle her ravenous needs when there is no public transportation to ferry her across nigh river to the hallowed banquet halls of Manhattan? How can she satisfy her appetite for consumption?
These are questions I ask myself as I examine the dwindling possibility of making my 8PM dinner reservations. Oh poor me! What ever will I do? Is there end to this madness?
Praying for the Mon & Pop Crowd:
The fact is that I can find sustenance anywhere; I also am capable of preparing my own gourmet meals at home. The sad thing of course is the loss of business that so many mom & pop shops, chef-owned restaurants and their hourly staffs will suffer. In a grim retail season where business is off by an average of 23% nationwide, and when we are staring down the barrel of loss versus profit, the strike is sweating retailers of goods and services. Many hourly employees, who make on average a paltry $8.00 per hour, will end up with nothing in their stockings but moths come next week. (They don’t have business insurance to cover their losses, like big chain stores.)
Throwing away that unused food:
Restaurants newly opened and hoping to make a splash in this busy holiday season will feel the pinch right away, and, if the strike lasts through New Years, they may have to close their freshly painted doors. While I can sit and feel sorry for myself because I have missed opportunities to gorge, my heart goes
out to those chefs and owners who have just invested much personal sweat and capital in a business that will no doubt be hit hard, if not shut down altogether. I am not talking about big splashy places like Del Postin, with much money backing and publicizing the opening and the ridiculously high-priced menu; I am talking about the smaller places that have just opened around the city, hoping to be a new dot on the culinary map.
Product. Egad, what about the product?
This week, traditionally the most profitable for restaurants, is also profitable for purveyors. Tons upon ton of fish, meat and fowl have already been delivered, and without commuter business, much of it will go to waste – an ignominious end for these creatures.
How ironic that in a city where the homeless and poor barely have enough to eat, and certainly not enough of the nutritious, that tons of high-priced protein will be dumped at the end of the week.
What’s in your belly? I am lucky because I work for a company that not only has gone to great lengths to ensure that employees can get to work, we also are provided with food. We have donated food and money to those in need. As we settle into this strike and head into the grim-looking New Year, my belly is filled with a cocktail of trepidation and hope that this strike does not further eviscerate the independent operators around town, thus allowing chains and chainlets to further clog the NYC dining map. I hope that the city can support small and tasty places, and that they are not replaced by Starbucks, Subway and the like. But between the strike, the rent and the risk, it is not looking too good for the new and hopeful.
Tags:
adrenaline rush, appetite for consumption, brooklyn, foodies, ignominious end, one track mind, public transportation, strike
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Posted on 12/20/2005
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