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NYC's Three-Michelin Star Eleven Madison Park Will Reopen As A Vegan Restaurant
Image Source: Sebastian Nevols
The venerated fine-dining restaurant long known for its technically perfect suckling pig, lavender glazed duck, and foie gras torchon will reopen this month with no animal products on the menu. Instead, James Beard Award-winning chef Daniel Humm will feature complex dishes such as clay roasted beets with roasted lettuce sauce that takes 16 hours to make, and amaranth seed and sweet peas served with fermented almond cream and pea-miso purée. Well-heeled vegans are ecstatic! The 12-course tasting menu remains $335 per person due to increased labor costs. Note that a portion of proceeds from each meal also provides five food truck meals to food-insecure New Yorkers through Humm's nonprofit organization Rethink Food.
Restaurant Sales Are Returning, But Restaurant Workers...Not So Much
Image Source: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Pandemic-related closures displaced nearly 2 million restaurant workers. Restaurants are now re-opening, but many servers, bussers, and chefs found work elsewhere. Some started new food businesses that are thriving. Others found jobs with better pay and working conditions. From fine dining to fast food, America's restaurants are struggling to meet consumer demand.
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$28.6 Billion "Restaurant Revitalization Fund" To Open For Grant Applications In April
Image Source: Open Table
Finally, some good news for American restaurants and bars: The federal $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package includes $28.6 billion in grants to help stop the bleeding. The fund offers a maximum of $10 million per restaurant group or $5 million for individual venues. Since most of last year's funds were scooped up by chain restaurants, to be eligible in this go round businesses cannot be publicly traded or have more than 20 locations. Over $5 billion of the grants are set aside for smaller venues with annual gross receipts below $500,000, and for the first 21 days, establishments owned by women, veterans, and economically or socially disadvantaged groups will be prioritized. The Small Business Administration is currently building digital infrastructure to administer the grants and expects to begin accepting applications by the end of April. Whew, just in time.
Here's A Closer Look At The Federal "Restaurant Rescue Plan" Advancing Through Congress
Image Source: AP/Mary Altaffer
The latest $1.9 trillion COVID relief aid package includes $25 billion to help America's ailing restaurants stay afloat. About $5 billion of that amount is earmarked specifically for smaller restaurants with less than $500,000 in 2019 revenues. Overall, the Restaurant Relief Fund would provide grants of up to $5 million per restaurant with few spending restrictions. For multi-unit operations, the grant goes up to $10 million total with up to 20 locations eligible to receive aid. The relief bill is expected to pass through the House of Representatives this week and then head to the Senate.
Image Source: Courtesy L'Arpege
The prestigious Michelin Guide has released its annual star ratings in France, in part to lift morale throughout the country's battered restaurant industry. This year, 45 restaurants lost their Michelin stars and 57 earned new ones. Among the winners, ONA (which stands for Origine Non Animale or Non-Animal Origin), a vegan restaurant in the southwestern village of Arès, near Bordeaux. With its shiny new Michelin star, ONA is the first animal-free establishment to appear in the Michelin Guide to France since the guide was first published way back in 1900.
