She was talking about Here’s Looking At You, in Koreatown, where she bought T-shirts and other merchandise to help out in the days before the owners announced they weren’t going to make it. For the holidays, he’s planning to buy another gift card for his housekeeper, and one more for the handyman, who’s coming by to fix a fence. The first three people who guess the correct location will win a $10 gift card to an Atlantic Station restaurant of their choice. The goal was to reevaluate how to stay open in the long run, she says, and she initially encouraged customers to purchase gift cards to help keep the business afloat. People who want to support their favorite restaurants by buying gift cards may be out of luck if the business ends up closing for good, and restaurant owners may not want to take the risk of angering their former customers by selling gift cards they don’t know they’ll be able to fulfill given the circumstances. But supporting them now, in their moment of need, could elevate their chance of survival. Digital Gift Cards are valid either presented on a smart phone or printed out. But we’re not planning for that to happen.”. You can go to store.ilovemole.com to fill out your shopping list. Increasingly, restaurants are coming up with creative ideas—mostly on the fly—with hopes of getting a bit of an edge. 12. “It’s more symbolic than anything else, people buying gift cards,” she says. “I didn’t promote [the gift cards] after the first time I posted on Instagram because I was very uncertain about the future of the shop altogether,” Taylor says. If we buy gift certificates, we can help keep restaurants alive, maintain a lifeline for tens of thousands of employees, and knock out all our holiday shopping in just a couple of hours. Xi’an isn’t offering gift cards at all, Wang said, because it doesn’t have an active gift card system, “nor any staff to implement one.” Instead, the chain has come up with other ways to raise revenue, including selling its chile oil packs online. “I was just devastated that one of my top-three favorite restaurants in L.A., that I just loved and adored, and went to with my husband to celebrate special occasions, closed a few months ago,” Lopez said. We hit this sobering reality check somewhere in the middle of all this that we may not go back to the way things were, and pretending that it’s going to be business as usual after this doesn’t feel like a very sustainable way of galvanizing support.”, Still, other restaurant owners have embraced gift cards, even though they acknowledge they aren’t a cure-all. https://pdx.eater.com/2020/3/12/21176944/restaraurant-gift-card-coronavirus “Someone just called today,” Hillan said, “and asked to buy 10 $100 gift certificates.”. Assil, too, has come up with new ways to keep her restaurants afloat as the pandemic continues. owners announced they weren’t going to make it, Pictures: USC Song Girls through the years, What yellow tier means for restaurants, bars, amusement parks, gyms and more, L.A. County to follow new federal mask guidance, Months before Floyd death, Angel Zapata Hernandez died in San Diego with knee to his neck. 00. Others are distrustful. He’s also asking listeners to wait six months after restaurants reopen to cash them in, so the eateries have a chance to recover some of their losses first. https://www.amazon.com/restaurant-gift-card/s?k=restaurant+gift+card Nabeel Alamgir, the … Police video shows Bay Area Latino man died after police pinned him to ground. “Most restaurants offer gift certificates, or will if asked,” Penfield said. Darden Restaurants Gift Card. I’ll be headed to a small neighborhood joint in the San Rafael Hills, to buy a few of my own. Now that everyone is either working from home or completely out of work, that customer base has dried up. Here’s how Disneyland is approaching the problem. “If you buy a gift certificate from us, we’re going to honor it,” McCracken said. Grubhub has removed its commission fee for restaurants and Facebook launched a $100 million grant for small businesses impacted by the coronavirus. “That gift card is the same as currency.”. If they get the shot, they will get a $100 gift card to a business of their choice provided by the company. https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/20/buy-restaurant-gift-certificates A Black LAPD officer wants LeBron James to listen to his view of policing and race, After the Lakers star tweeted about the fatal police shooting of a girl in Ohio, an LAPD cop tells him: “Your current stance ... is so off base”, Earthquake: Magnitude 3.5 quake strikes near San Diego Country Estates. $25.00 $ 25. I will avoid "The Restaurant Choice" at all costs and the establishments linked to them in the future. If deleted they will not be resent. At Guelaguetza, the celebrated Mid-City Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles, owner Bricia Lopez said she’d be happy to sell gift certificates and other merchandise, like cookbooks, mole and other products her restaurant is famous for. Facing massive losses in foot traffic and sales, restaurateurs across the country have turned to gift cards as an emergency stopgap measure. The way I explained it to people was that the gift cards were going to be helpful — they were an immediate Band-Aid,” she says. Just a week later, San Francisco issued a shelter-in-place order in response to the coronavirus pandemic — a necessary precaution that, for Assil, led to a devastating drop in sales when she needed them most. Well-meaning volunteers have compiled lists of restaurants offering gift cards to make up for lost revenue; companies have made headlines for purchasing tens — or hundreds — of thousands of dollars in restaurant gift cards and distributing them to their employees. Reem’s has begun selling merch, and the bakery’s Oakland location has fully shifted to a commissary kitchen model, where nonprofit organizations like World Central Kitchen order meals in bulk and distribute them to people in need. 8. What’s going on with school? The chain will soon roll out “a limited release of noodle meal-kits” so people can recreate its dishes in their homes, he said. Pivoting to delivery and takeout is bringing in some revenue, but most operators realize they have to go beyond those platforms to stay in business. 1-16 of over 1,000 results for "restaurant gift cards" Happy Gift Card. “I didn’t know how long I was going to be closed. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is too long for California health rules limiting indoor rides. I loved the idea, and when I saw that shopping malls have been allowed to stay open while restaurants can’t serve food even outdoors until at least Dec. 16, I got an idea of my own. Kristin Smart vanishing suspect was later accused of sexually assaulting women in L.A. Fourteen years ago, police in Redondo Beach were called to a hospital where a woman had come after waking up in a stranger’s bed, naked and with no memory of what had happened. The restaurant is currently offering customers 25 percent off all gift cards. Her work has appeared in Vox, The Nation, The Baffler, and other publications. Rod Davis owns two small restaurants — Nick’s Café, near the state park on the edge of downtown Los Angeles, and Rock’N Egg Café in Eagle Rock. Meanwhile, some restaurants have pushed back against the outdoor dining ban, questioning whether science really supports it. Though the commissary kitchen meals are being sold more or less at cost, the partnership is providing enough revenue to keep some people working. Dina Samson, who owns Rossoblu in downtown Los Angeles and serves on a restaurant advocacy group called the Independent Hospitality Coalition, said one of her regular diners just bought $3,000 worth of gift certificates and plans to give them away. If your restaurant is open, the worst thing you can do right now … California native Steve Lopez has been a journalist for 45 years. And restaurants aren’t the only businesses in jeopardy of going under. “Gift certificates should be at the top of everyone’s holiday gift list,” he said. To support operators during this time, Toast has created special offers and support including: Rally for Restaurants: Toast has launched this consumer-facing campaign to promote the purchase of The merch, meanwhile, is a more secure source of cash flow than gift cards. Gift Cards can be purchased with a minimum value of £5, up to a maximum of £250. Facing massive losses in foot traffic and sales, restaurateurs across the country are quickly discovering the limitations of this strategy, Everything was still more or less normal in San Francisco when Reem Assil opened a second location of her bakery, Reem’s California, in early March. “Yes, it’s not perfect. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Thomas Penfield, a retired San Diego County lawyer, sent me an idea that just might help restaurants survive pandemic lockdowns. But it would be extra helpful, she said, if the recipients of those gift certificates don’t all show up the first week restaurants reopen. Part of the problem was that she didn’t have a pre-existing gift card infrastructure. “We’re kind of a luxury item — coffee and pastry are not necessities. Small local chains are also feeling the squeeze. Getting back to Penfield, the retired attorney, he told me he has bought gift certificates from one of his favorite restaurants — Besta-Wan Pizza in Cardiff-by-the-Sea — for his cat sitter and handyman, as well as for himself. But as some cities even gear up to reopen in the coming weeks, Assil and others in her position are quickly discovering the limitations of the gift card strategy. What a shocking way to treat people. Opponents say the coursework sows divisions, but experts say it’s necessary for overcoming them. “We’re brainstorming other strategies beyond gift cards that don’t rely on this existing model,” Assil says. “Why not buy one from your favorite restaurant every week during the … closure to help them out in lieu of dining out? One restaurant, Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman Oaks, has raised more than $170,000 in donations after its owner — Angela Marsden — made headlines for a tearful video in which she blasted local officials for banning outdoor dining at the restaurant, while an adjacent outdoor dining area for a film shoot remained open. “It’s not a lasting solution — it’s just one thing we can do,” says Ravi Kapur, the chief owner of Liholiho Yacht Club in San Francisco. Jason Wang, the CEO of New York City mainstay Xi’an Famous Foods, told Eater the government solutions proposed thus far — including low- or no-interest loans — have been lacking. Amazon's Choice for restaurant gift cards. Los Angeles is a food lover’s paradise, Okun noted, and it’s worth helping to support the culture of year-round dining, indoors and out. Once the restaurant does reopen, the funds brought in by the gift cards will serve as initial runway. For restaurant owners looking to reopen their doors in a depressed economy, and after months of financial strain, the “interest” on these loans can be steep. Assil agrees. While we were dining, she got up from the table and danced for the first time in her life. Gaby Del Valle is a freelance reporter who primarily covers immigration and labor. “We would never discourage it,” said Samson, who has had to furlough employees and is happy to have whatever support she can get. Meanwhile, as restaurants and other businesses stand on the brink of extinction, the tone-deaf White House announced with great fanfare this week that First Lady Melania Trump has completed efforts to open a private tennis pavilion at the White House. Marsden was unavailable when I called, but bartender Liz McCracken said the “outpouring of love” has been a great boost, and the restaurant is hoping to begin processing requests for gift certificates. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling “The Soloist,” a story that began on the pages of the Los Angeles Times, where he has been a columnist since 2001. Gift cards essentially function as no-interest microloans — small low-interest loans, usually considered a form of philanthropy. “I don’t really do gift cards regularly,” she says. After WWII and the Japanese incarceration, they fell in love. https://www.insider.com/how-to-help-restaurants-during-coronavirus-pandemic At a time in the COVID pandemic when community spread is out of control, isn’t there a better way to say happy holidays than hanging out in an indoor mall hunting for gifts? That’s what makes it a grim outlook at the end of this.”, After Illinois instituted a shelter-in-place order, Taylor closed up shop for two weeks despite her bakery being considered an essential business. If it maintains its numbers, L.A. 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