How to Save Your Favorite Restaurant From Closing

Restaurants are always there for us. Most of them are open seven days a week, maybe taking a day off here and there for a holiday. They’re more reliably open than banks and post offices. They’re there when you want to celebrate or commiserate. People propose to each other at restaurants and they break up with each other at restaurants. Restaurants are a part of our lives and maybe we take them for granted sometimes. 

It wasn’t that long ago, during Covid, when restaurants were pretty much taken away from us. Customers supported them during that time by ordering to-go because that was the only option and they also tipped well. When restaurants eventually reopened, everyone was grateful, but before long it was back to complaining about prices and the perceived lack of service. It’s easy to forget how important something is when it’s so steadfastly dependable. 

Whenever there’s a natural disaster, so many restaurants are ready to step up and help. The mission for every restaurant is “to feed,” and that’s what they do. With fires ravaging Los Angeles, there are many homes, businesses, and restaurants upended. Some restaurants not affected by the fire are offering free meals to firefighters, first responders, and people who have lost everything. When you lose your home and are left with only memories, a warm meal is worth much more than any price on the menu. This is yet another example of restaurants being there for the community.

A restaurant needs to know you appreciate it because there’s no guarantee it will always be there. When a favorite restaurant closes down for good, it can feel like a real loss — one that deserves grieving. That’s how important restaurants are and you might not even know it until you step back and think about it. If you see that a restaurant you care about is in trouble, surround it with love. It’s just a building, but it’s a lot like a plant. It needs attention, care, and consideration, or it won’t grow and flourish. It will just exist and slowly fade away like my ficus tree that I thought would always have the same amount of leaves until one day it didn’t. Restaurants and customers need each other to survive.

Years ago, I remember working what I thought was a regular lunch shift when a party of 12 came in. They had just left the funeral of someone in their family and what they chose to do afterward was to share a meal together. Consequently, I was part of that. My caregiver instincts took over and I treated them as if they were my own family. I wanted everything to be as good as it possibly could be. I knew they were sad for their loss, but happy to be together. Isn’t that how it always is at a funeral? I too had recently lost someone and I shared their grief with them. It made me feel good to know that I might be making their day a little bit better and they made me feel good by reminding me that grief is much easier to accept when you’re surrounded by love.

They had a good time, but it was tinged with a sadness that couldn’t be ignored. I didn’t tell them they made me feel better and they didn’t tell me either, but I think we all knew. We recognized that we all needed each other and the food had nothing to do with it; it was the humanity. 

That’s what restaurants can do. They can support you when you’re down and embrace you when you’re happy and it needs it to be reciprocal. Don’t assume you will always be able to go to your favorite restaurant because things will change. A fire can take it away overnight or a lack of empathy can take it away over a period of years. You’re left with only memories of either the food you ate, the people you ate it with, or the people who served it to you. Be grateful for the restaurants in your life because they are grateful for you.