How It Feels to Close Your Restaurant for Good

When you apply pressure to stop bleeding, it is not an active decision. Decisions are made about how to proceed. Run and grab the closest rag? Fashion a tourniquet? The need to stop bleeding is presented the moment skin is broken. What happens next are reactions. For my Philadelphia restaurantpoi狗对我来说，大流行是伤口。关闭餐厅是一种反应。

Dismantling and unraveling years of perfecting an operation, accumulating items, and gathering a loyal staff can be as complicated as opening.

Back when my business partner Chris Vacca and I were opening Poi Dog, we handed over lump sums in exchange for refrigerators, stoves, sinks and leases from people who simply walked away. To open our business, we had to first dispose of strangers' trash bags stuffed with faded receipts and unpaid bills, clean out forgotten food in the walk-in, scrub away layers of black mold.

我确定如果我们曾经关闭POI狗，我们会做得更好。

我没想到会在大流行中关闭餐厅。像我这样的小型企业有足够的钱节省了几天的临时关闭。有些人很幸运地获得了一定的援助，这将我们的安全垫从几天到几周或几个月里扩展。Poi Dog是餐厅，食品卡车和餐饮公司的三方业务，依靠繁忙的午餐时间，不断的办公室餐饮以及繁忙的vwin德赢ac米兰食品卡车活动的结合，以生存。我们业务的这三个支柱在三月蒸发。从6月开始，我们与每周一次的外卖一起lim缩，带来了足够的资金来向供应商，公用事业，保险和一对员工的薪水支付失业福利，但不是我们自己。

We sold the food truck and announced our closure on the same Friday. We planned one final service, a collaboration that showcased our staff with fledgling businesses serving Filipino lechon, kombucha, and tamales, alongside some of our greatest hits: Spicy Ahi Poke, Spam Musubi, Butter Mochi. Pre-orders only.

The news of our closure unleashed a torrent of grief, attention and sales I did not expect or experience before. My phone dinged constantly. Messages, orders and calls. Emails from people who met their spouses at Poi Dog. Former professors and friends from past lives. Hawaii people, heartbroken their food would no longer be represented on the East Coast. Messages from the Philippines, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Mexico – countries in which we had events planned. Notifications came in so rapidly, my phone overheated and began to malfunction.

我四天无法感觉到我的手臂。我的视线呈黄色。我晕倒之前经历的症状。我因压力，恐惧和忧虑而瘫痪。

陌生人在街上阻止了我，表示慰问，就像死亡一样。我没有时间哀悼，尽管当我的男朋友要我停下来吃早餐时，我哭了。

为了为我们的最终POI狗服务做准备，我的朋友艾玛（Emma）和我一起在空旷的餐厅里度过了几个小时，以字母顺序排列了我们在五个不同的时间段内收到的400张订单票。我们使用彩色胶带来突出显示餐厅中每个可用表面的细节和挂式机票：宴会，柜台，桌子。

我在餐厅给每个工作人员分配了一个车站，以确保我们之间有足够的空间。口头交流被我们脸上的口罩掩盖。乔什（Josh）是我们当天的前厨师和保镖，在白板上写下了客户的名字，然后将其传递给我以与门票配对。服务像复杂的，同时发生的电话和标签一样发挥作用，但我们没有窃窃私语和触摸，而是阐明并通过了oke碗，垃圾邮件musubi，箔纸包裹的玉米粉蒸肉。

线蜿蜒曲折。我通过窗户看到顾客，饥饿的送葬者，以面具和POI狗衬衫收集订单。他们将乔什的鲜花，葡萄酒和同情卡交给了餐厅。vwin德赢ac米兰

那天晚上，我在Rittenhouse公园的草地上倒塌了。我喝了一瓶桃红葡萄酒。

In a yellow haze and in the days following, I made lists and completed forms to cancel internet, delivery apps, knife sharpening and linen services.

I contacted a food rescue that sent volunteers to collect unused ingredients: dried macaroni, gallons of sauces, pork shoulder.

On our website, we set up a Makana form, Hawaiian for “gift,” to facilitate the donation of our fryers, stoves, and hotel pans to entrepreneurs, prioritizing people of color. We received dozens of responses. I spent a day calling applicants. Many didn’t pick up their phones. I called again and again. I slid into DMs.

We split our equipment between two West Philly initiatives: a non-profit daycare and金银花项目。

我开始更容易入睡。我现在可以吃全餐，我记得吃的东西。我开始感到宽慰，以消除长达数月的斗争，并不断害怕使我的员工和顾客接触潜在的Covid-19-19。

我的朋友,摄影师尼尔·桑托斯,叫做芋泥做的g “an epicenter of creativity for many, many folks to collaborate, cook, and eat.” As I wrote inPOI狗的询问者itu告，“一家餐厅有一个身体和灵魂。我们将前者留在后面。”我为我们作为震中培养的阿罗哈文化感到非常自豪。我的目标是以另一种形式将其永久化，该杂志庆祝多元文化起源的食物。vwin德赢ac米兰这是POI狗的最初目标，该术语在夏威夷Pidgin中意味着“混合品种”。但是，在我这样做之前，我们需要停止流血。