'A Little Bit Of Hope:' Brick Restaurant Owner Holds On, For Now

BRICK, NJ — Outdoor dining kicked off with full tables at the Windward Tavern on Monday, the first day that Gov. Phil Murphy allowed dine-in service at restaurants since March.

Mort Nase, who's owned the Princeton Avenue eatery for eight years, said the six tables he's set up had been booked all day. "We had a couple people waiting."

"It kind of gives you a little bit of hope," Nase said. Hope of surviving a pandemic shutdown that has stressed finances and mental health to the max. "It definitely has been a hard couple of months."

The shutdown has limited Nase and restaurant owners all over the state to offering delivery and/or takeout. Or they had the option of closing temporarily.

"You have to kind of keep the brand going," he said, of why he didn't close completely. He also felt a responsibility to his employees. Some weren't eligible for unemployment; others wouldn't be able to make ends meet on it.

So he took a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program to help keep his business running.

"We did a brisk takeout but we were only busy two hours a day," Nase said. "I was lucky enough to get it (the PPP loan) in the first round, but it gets eaten up fast."

Because the rules are not clear on when and how much will have to be paid back, it adds to the worries.

"It could bankrupt me," Nase said. "It’s been a really rough couple months both financially and mentally."

Nase said he's fought through challenges in the past. He bought the Windward Tavern in 2012, after working at Frankie’s Bar and Grill in Point Pleasant for 26 years. Within months, he had to contend with Superstorm Sandy, which flooded homes and properties along Princeton Avenue.

But he worked his way back, just to be faced with the shutdown of the Midstreams Bridge for more than a year. That hurt business. He was looking to 2020 to be a year where he finally started to build up a cushion.

Nase said he keeps pushing forward because he has hope of weathering this crisis, too, so he can continue to be his own boss — something he'd wanted for years.

The pace of New Jersey's reopening, however, is making it extremely challenging.

"I don't know if I can survive at 50 percent" capacity for indoor dining. Restaurants operate on a slim margin, and that margin has taken a major dent already in the costs of setting up the outdoor dining.

"Brick has been really great," in its efforts to make the outdoor dining a viable option. But it's an expensive proposition with the requirements that must be met.

"The tent rental alone is $4,000 a month," Nase said. While he opened on Monday with six tables outside, 10 more are in the works. "I'm just waiting on my parking lot barriers."

Ten more tables will help revenue, but outdoor dining only goes so far. "We have a lot of reservations for tonight, but the rest of the week is so-so," Nase said. "The weather is supposed to be rainy later in the week."

"What happens in October and November?" he said.

Reopening has presented an additional challenge: Employees who were eligible for unemployment, who also received the federal $600 weekly unemployment, have been reluctant to give up that money to return to work.

"My better employees are forgoing it," Nase said, and he appreciates their loyalty. But for others who have been receiving it, he's now in the position of having to tell them they either must come back to work or they will lose their unemployment benefits entirely.

"I'll have to rat them out" if they don't return to their jobs, he said. "It's a really uncomfortable position."

But he's still hopeful Murphy won't drag his feet on indoor dining for too long.

"The lack of revenue, the lack of customers, it's hard. I've done everything I can to keep my employees going," Nase said, including not taking a paycheck from the restaurant in two months. But his family can only endure that for so long.

"People should be able to make a decision about going out," Nase said. "Our safety standards and practices far surpass anything Murphy’s telling us to do."

"We're getting strangled here," he said. At the same time, he feels fortunate, because while he's been able to do takeout, there are dozens of mom-and-pop stores that have been completely shuttered since March.

"But at the same time we can crowd into a Walmart, we can crowd into a Home Depot. I just think it's horrendous," Nase said. "Everyone else sees (small businesses are) the backbone of the community. Why can't he see that?"

"We lost money every day doing takeout," Nase said. "If I have to do this again, I’ll lose the business."

But he keeps pressing forward, for now at least.

"It’s what I love," Nase said.

See more stories about New Jersey's coronavirus recovery.

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