Thread by @JennyWRobb, My husband and I own a restaurant in Birmingham, AL. We opened [...]

My husband and I own a restaurant in Birmingham, AL. We opened in June of 2018 and have been fortunate to have loyal community support since opening. We shut down in mid-March of this year due to Covid and furloughed our staff. Management took a paycut. The majority of our staff

have been with us since we first opened. We are a family. We were meticulous about the PPP loan. We set up a go-fund-me for our staff while we were shut down. We gave return-to-work bonuses when we were able to re-open in May. We began curbside service. We removed tables and bar

stools to allow for proper distancing. We have the restaurant deep-cleaned daily. We invested in air purifiers for the dining room and kitchen. All staff wear masks at all times. Staff and guests are temperature checked upon entering the building. When there were demonstrations

in Birmingham following the killing of George Floyd we closed once again as the city issued a curfew. Demonstrations were mostly peaceful, but there were some riots in which businesses were damaged. We were fortunate to have not sustained any damage. Once the curfew was lifted

we re-opened again. We strongly encouraged our staff to be responsible, that whatever they did on their own time they brought back to the restaurant, which affected all of our livelihoods. We hammered home the fact that we are all in this together. We don't want to put each

other or our guests in any danger of exposure or infection of the virus. By the grace of God, we are getting by. With reduced seating capacity coupled with fears of going out to restaurants, we have had to remain nimble and vigilant. A saving grace has been our patio. Many

patrons are wary of indoor dining, and will only sit outside. We are worried about the winter months ahead, when outdoor dining will be too cold. We have 2 fire pits and have invested in heaters, but the winter months remain daunting. If any of our staff go on vacation, they are

required to have a covid test and may return to work upon testing negative. Even with protocols in place, we had a staff member test positive. We immediately shut down, put out a statement on our website and social media and paid for our entire staff to be tested. Once safe, we

re-opened, again. We were completely transparent because we do not want to put any of our staff or guests in harm's way. We are all vulnerable. One of our kitchen staff is an African-American man with diabetes in an at-risk age group. A bartender is also in an at-risk age group,

and his wife is immunocompromised following numerous cancer treatments. These are just 2 of our staff; everyone has their own risks. We answer to our investors, landlords, purveyors, guests, and each other. We have a responsibility to the well-being of every person involved in

operating our restaurant. This is why I am outraged that the president is not willing to be transparent about his own testing. While we are doing everything we can to care for all involved in our restaurant's operation, the leader of our country refuses to do the same at the

White House and beyond. Covid has dominated our lives since mid-March, and continues to dominate our lives today. We are afraid of this deadly virus.
@CillizzaCNN @ChrisCuomo @kaitlancollins @PoppyHarlowCNN @DanRather @JoeBiden @SenDougJones @donlemon @randallwoodfin

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