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78 HOW HOUSTON RESTAURANTS ARE COPING W hile the city's restaurant scene has t a k e n a calamitous tumble from COVID-19 fallout, Houston chefs and restaurant owners are adapting, innovating and collaborating on efforts to nourish their ailing industry. Curbside take-out and home delivery are the new normal. From the beginning of the March 17 restaurant shut-down, major players have modified their business models, devising new ways to keep the doors open and provide income for an army of furloughed waiters and cooks. Leading the charge to aid the hospitality industry is the Southern Smoke Foundation, brainchild of James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd. Since 2015, the foundation has dispensed $2 million in emergency funds to individuals in the food and beverage industry. But the need has never been greater than during the COVID-19 pandemic. While consolidating his Underbelly Hospitality (Georgia James, The Hay Merchant, One/Fifth, UB Preserv, Blacksmith) food service for take-out under one roof at UB Preserv, Shepherd has catapulted his foundation into high gear, expanding staff from two to 30 full-time employees — all food workers and professionals who lost their jobs to the virus. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the foundation has distributed more than $672,000 to 354 people. As of mid-April, the foundation had received more than 20,600 COVID-19 applications. The giving continues with an assist from the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation, contributing $1 million to Southern Smoke and committing to donate 50 percent of all funds raised during the pandemic. From the outset, Benjamin Berg of Berg Hospitality Group (B&B Butchers & Restaurant, The Annie, Turner's, BB Lemon, BB Italia) came to the aid of his employees by launching a GoFundMe campaign, the Berg Hospitality Family Relief Fund, with all monies going directly to those employees. His next step was to hold back-to-back weekends of barbecue take-out with The Annie Café & Bar partner and chef Robert Del Grande at the grill; all proceeds went to Berg's hourly employees. "This is honestly beyond the realm of imagination for our industry and my company, and it destroys me, as I know it does other restaurateurs in the city, that we cannot employ our hourly staff right now," Berg tells PaperCity. "They truly are the backbone of our company, so we are going to try to do anything we can to help them." B Y S H E L B Y H O D G E RESTAURATEURS STEP UP TO THE PLATE IN THIS TIME OF CRISIS. Landry's Inc. hospitality mogul Tilman Fertitta also stepped up to the plate to help his 10,000 employees in Houston and Galveston. The firm provides free meals to staff seven days a week at the former Willie G's location on Post Oak Boulevard. Every day, 1,500 to 2,000 employees pick up meals for themselves and their families, selecting from options such as shrimp or chicken entrees, pasta, salads, hamburgers, and more. As we go to press, the team had provided more than 34,000 meals. Innovation borne of necessity has driven a number of restaurateurs to redefine their business model, including Benjy Levit, owner of The Classic, Benjy's, and Local Foods. While the first two are temporarily closed, Local Foods remains open for take- out, and all four locations have added a pop-up market. Tables have been removed to make room for shelves loaded with necessities ranging from milk and eggs to toilet paper. Included are prepared foods from local vendors such as Slow Dough, Katz Coffee, Black Hill Ranch, and Blue Horizon Seafood. Meanwhile, Clark Cooper Concepts' Charles Clark and Grant Cooper (Brasserie 19, Coppa Osteria, Punk's Simple Southern Food, The Dunlavy, Ibiza) were consolidating their restaurants under one roof at Coppa Osteria. That popular stalwart, now rebranded Coppa Marketplace, stocks not only take-out fully prepared and cook-at-home offerings but also cooking essentials and bottles from the popular Brasserie 19 wine list. In an effort that serves numerous entities, Aaron Lyons and Trent Patterson, owners of Dish Society (locations in the Galleria area, Memorial, the Heights, Katy) has introduced a farmer's market option to their take-out menu. Partnering with Atkinson Farms, Black Hill Ranch, Slow Dough, and Vital Farms, Dish is loading up grocery bags with fresh produce, meats, eggs, milk, and multigrain bread. See more S h e l b y Hodge at papercity mag.com. B.B. Italia Kitchen Ravioli at B.B. Italia Kitchen PHOTOS KIRSTEN GILLIAM