Forest Hills Restaurant Owners Bracing For Coronavirus Impact

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A citywide shutdown has left the restaurant and bar owners of Forest Hills grappling with uncertainty, but some say they're certain of at least one thing: They won't be turning a profit for the foreseeable future.

Starting 8 p.m. Monday, New York City restaurants and bars were forced to halt all operations other than takeout and delivery in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

But takeout and delivery orders alone are unlikely to keep the lights on, local restaurateurs told Patch.

Ollie Sakhno, who owns the wine bar Keuka Kafe, said he relies on selling food and wine inside his Queens Boulevard space to keep the business going.

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"We’re really worried about finances because it’s a small place,” Sakhno told Patch. "99 percent of our regular revenue comes from people dining in. We do very little takeout on a regular basis."

Though the shutdown prompted state officials to waive a rule against getting beer, wine and liquor to-go — which could be a lifeline for Sakhno's wine bar — he said he's still unsure what he can and cannot offer.

Forest Hills eateries that never offered delivery or didn't have a steady delivery business are already closing, according to Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce President Leslie Brown.

She added that many business owners don't want to start offering takeout or delivery, because they fear the city will halt that too.

"They're afraid they're just going to shut everything down anyway," Brown told Patch in a phone interview.

Still, some are optimistic. Mohannad Jdeed, who runs the Syrian restaurant Deasura, said he'll offer takeout and delivery as long as he can, even though he's barely breaking even, because he knows New Yorkers appreciate a ready-made meal.

Leading up to the mandated closure, he gave customers gloves they could wear while handling menus, and when an 82-year-old man stopped by for a celebratory birthday lunch, he seated the party at a distance from other customers.

"I'm not panicking," he told Patch. "It's something that nature threw at us, and we really need to get together as a community and fight it."

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