Long Island City Restaurants Gear Up For Coronavirus Closure

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — At the start of this month, the team behind the popular Long Island City restaurant Maiella was celebrating the end of a grueling, years-long process to ready a sprawling Center Boulevard space for their latest venture, a brasserie-style restaurant called American Brass.

Then concerns over the rapid spread of the new coronavirus prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to order New York City bars and restaurants to cut their capacity in half, followed by another order to indefinitely halt all operations other than takeout and delivery services.

Co-owner Robert Briskin and his team now face the challenge of promoting a brand-new eatery in a city that's notoriously difficult for restaurateurs, while also grappling with the unprecedented hurdles wrought by the COVID-19, the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

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“I doubt we will even turn a profit," Briskin told Patch in a phone interview. "The point is just to at least try and keep our kitchen staff employed during this nightmare.”

He's hoping that innovation is the key: Maiella will offer takeout and delivery for the first time in its five-year history, and American Brass will sell four-packs of craft beer for pickup in addition to takeout and delivery meals.

Briskin isn't the only Long Island City business owner using creative thinking to get through the closure.

Little Chef Little Cafe's Diana Manalang is relying on sales of her signature meal-prep kits to help her five-month-old storefront survive, and she's also encouraging neighbors to stop by the eatery's take-out window for a coffee or a snack: “Help us get through this together,” she said.

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