OUR DOWNTOWN LOCATION IS OPEN UNTIL 7:30PM
  • Restaurants make series of changes from Covid Pandemic

    Channel 13's Sarah Jones interviewed the owner of Shapiro's Delicatessen prior to Mother's Day weekend to discuss a number of topics. Frustrated by fixed costs on a 130 year old building housing his 115 year old family delicatessen, Brian Shapiro still has utility bills for the massive building, that now mostly sits empty in the dark. "Before the pandemic, we were paying less than a dollar for a gallon of bleach. Now it's anywhere from four to five dollars," Shapiro says. New restaurant guidelines are being discussed, but those in the meetings are large, publicly traded restaurant chains like Starbucks and steak houses. He fears that some rules will be too costly for the very small, independent restaurants with 5 to 50 employees. Coming from a fourth generation car dealership, founded in 1912, my view looks all too familiar. When was the last time you drove through a Midwest small town of four to five thousand people and saw a Ford or GM dealership? You might be able to pick out their former building but there is a used car lot in it's place. The "mom and pop" car dealers that actually sold NEW cars by a major US manufacturer don't excite in rural America any longer. I hope this isn't the future for our mom and pop restaurants as well. ~Sally Shapiro