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today we are happy to welcome a panel um of experts in the restaurant in this industry and to talk about how our restaurants can continue to rebound from coven 19. uh we'll also outline some legislation happening in iowa and illinois aimed at benefiting the industry my name is jake ford i'm the director of government affairs for the quad cities chamber thank you again for joining us this morning this program will be recorded and available on the chambers website after the event so please stay tuned for that link a special thanks as always to our legislative series annual sponsors am general llc iconic excellent generation and stanley consultants a full list of the chambers 2021 advocacy priorities can be found on the website as well you'll also see there are advocacy action center which we hope you'll utilize to provide feedback on legislative issues that are important to you please also keep an eye out for our e-news updates that will be hitting your inbox each week our government affairs team will keep you updated on what's happening in dc springfield and des moines as we're getting started here please enter your questions for our panelists into the q and a box at the bottom of your screen we will address as many questions as possible during the program now i'd like to start today's program by introducing our panelists uh letting them tell you a little bit more about what they do and who they are and to start us off i will introduce jessica dunker she is the president and ceo of the iowa restaurant association jessica thank you good morning the iowa restaurant association is the state affiliate of the national restaurant association we like the illinois restaurant association are accountable to the restaurants and bars in our own state so in the state of iowa we are in the midst of our legislative session where we are working on both immediate and long-term recovery issues as well as providing service safe education around the state as best we can so um we're excited to share a little bit about what's happening today and looking forward to great conversation great thank you next i'd like to introduce our second panelist matt quinn who is the assistant director of government relations and communications for the illinois illinois restaurant association matt thanks jay can you hear me sure cameron uh thank you thanks jake thanks for having me today appreciate the opportunity to speak with everyone i'll just touch on a few things uh uh briefly uh as jessica stated you know we represent all aspects of the illinois side of uh you know the the restaurant and hospitality industries so restaurants bars caterers event venues breweries um you know our allied vendors really everyone in between um you know before covet you know we were the largest largest private private sector industry in the states you know as we all know it's going to be very long road to recovery and uh there are 124 thousand restaurant and hospitality jobs that were lost from march december 2020 and sadly we estimate that you know 20 percent of restaurants may not reopen if business conditions continue so we're really working on all fronts to provide supports relief and advocacy for the restaurant and hospitality industry and uh glad to talk a little bit more about that i don't know if we wanted to dive into it now jake or we'll talk about it more during our q a sounds good thanks matt and finally our third panelist representing the quad cities community here is latisha hallett she is the owner of bayside bistro in davenport so i will turn it over her to her to introduce herself now good morning everybody my name is latisha howlett and i am from bayside bistro in the village of east avenport we're a family-owned business here in the quad cities and uh also the owners of bay science smoothies and more so we've been around for 12 years here in the quad cities and are excited and honored to be a part of the panel and so i look looking forward to hearing what everybody has to say and those questions and uh how we can move forward so thank you for having us great thanks and again just as a reminder uh to all of our attendees please use that q and a box we'll try to get to as many questions as we can as we uh start the program latisha i'd like to start back with you could you tell the audience um and jessica and matt as well just a little bit more about the challenges you faced during coven um and how you kind of adapted during all this and what you're doing now to kind of try to rebound um so we have uh copit has been difficult for everybody uh small businesses especially in and now i have a new word micro businesses right because we know what the sba considers small business and that doesn't necessarily fit uh our paradigm uh we're a lot smaller than that um and so um we found that the confusion of course across the river everybody knows you know whether or not you they can should wear masks not wearing masks um having um the governor of iowa make changes for us in the month of uh june was a huge uh spike in business and a nice time with the win the weather was changing for everybody um so we saw a lot of outdoor business we saw that happening because that was a heavy hit of course for everybody in march april and may and then of course june was a time to kind of regroup from that if you will you know so just not understanding the changes that were happening and how long covid is actually going to be around nobody having any insight into that was really kind of difficult because i think everybody at the time was really trying to just hold on to every bit of information that was ever changing right you know and so you really had to be connected to the pieces to the puzzle you had to be connected in a part of your chamber you know you had to be a part of your you know your restaurant association you had to be a part of these entities that you know the health department that was really flowing in that information to you you know those government officials so what we really saw is a huge decline of course like everybody else did in march you know april and may and then june we you know in iowa we had that huge spike of course because the law changed we went from not being able to see anyone indoors you know uh or at all right it was just curbside only pickup to now you can actually have 50 inside and that was a game changer i mean total game changer and we had this huge spike and you know people was coming back out again like i said the weather was beautiful uh to accommodate that change right and of course the industry has natural laws and they have ebb and flows so you have um you know the the fourth quarter which could have been a challenge right because now is you know it's time to get a shot you know the flu is that going to be a real problem this year you know and then then we have this weather that we had so in um in terms of how customers were flowing in i think that um that last month even in you know december and january people started to see that lull again just because of the fear and then waiting people waiting to be on the list to get their shots and kind of know how that was going to roll out and like i said the weather being adverse as well so we just had a lot of um a lot of interesting hurdles this year to kind of climb if you will as did every business owner right um there was just a lot of confusion so i hope that answers your question more fully you did thank you for that and matt i want to turn to you next um you heard latisha talk about it a bit uh as a border community we kind of have a pretty good understanding of how these states are handling coca differently and what that meant for our restaurants uh can you talk a little bit about just what the illinois side has done obviously it was a little more restrictive than iowa what have you guys been advocating for during covenant and what's kind of the next step for the illinois restaurant association sure so you know as you all know especially on the east side of the river uh you know it's been a constant struggle to really keep restaurants uh open and keep them open safely and secure some pragmatic reopening regulations and that's really what uh what my job has been uh every day for the past year um you know we're really trying to just be at the table with elected officials at the local and state level and public health experts to really get the most favorable regulations possible you know locally we've worked with municipalities across illinois to cut licensing fees streamline and expand their permits for outdoor dining things like that and in chicago we also passed an ordinance uh that we're uh also pursuing at the state level that um temporarily caps fees that third-party delivery services can charge onto restaurants i think it's definitely a reasonable measure that puts some guardrails in place to you know protect and support our local restaurants when they really need it most at the state level we've really led the charge on reinstating indoor dining during mitigations as you all remember back in well depending on the region october november essentially all the state got shut down for indoor dining and we were really beating the drum and calling on the governor to change that mitigation approach to allow for some limited indoor dining even during mitigations the state finally changed course than mid-january so that was a good step in the right direction we also have to pass uh cocktails to go in in illinois uh a couple other things like suspending the retailer delinquency lists and allowing some for some additional payment flexibility between retailers and distributors those are some some good steps to help to help restaurants but uh you know every bit helps of course you know so much more is needed right now we're calling on the states to advance restaurant and hospitality workers into phase 1b of vaccine distribution which will of course provide enhanced protection for for our essential workers we're also lobbying as jessica is and all of our counterparts around the country and the national wrestling association to pass a dedicated restaurant relief fund at the federal level uh right now things are looking very good uh it looks like it's gonna be a 25 billion dollar package um so we're very happy about that and now we just need to get it over the finish line we're also really uh focused on you know more broadly on bringing back tourism conventions events into illinois because as all of you know how crucial they are to the restaurant hospitality industry um so you know really urging the states to work with us as stakeholders to come up with some innovative solutions to allow for larger gatherings beyond 50 people because that's really stifling our our you know convention tourism events industry overall so those are some things that we've been working on and things we're working on in the near future that's great thanks uh jessica just to give a perspective from the iowa side obviously here in the quad cities we saw illinois be a little bit more restricted but that doesn't mean iowa businesses you know are any uh are thriving much better it's hitting everybody in the country and um we know that restaurants usually are operating on pretty slim profit margins anyway what are you hearing from your members and restaurants uh are they doing all right now is there more help that's needed in iowa well you know of course there's more help because when coveted shutdowns began the average operator had 16 days of cash on hand in the state of iowa our shutdowns began on march 17th we were never totally shut down because we were always allowed to do carryout and delivery and to go and so on march 17th we had with two hours notice on st patrick's day um the on-premise closures were what happened that lasted for 77 of our 99 counties through may 1st and then they were allowed to open at limited capacity the rest of the counties came in about two weeks later and currently in iowa there are actually no restrictions and that is a mixed blessing to be honest because you need at least one uh restriction in place to continue to take advantage at the federal level of the employee relief tax credit that being said we had um entered last march with the thought that if nothing happened we would lose a thousand of the 6200 locations permanently across the state but i do have to credit the state of iowa for kicking into gear we were making financial relief requests by march 18th um the iowa economic development authority started a grant program that they allotted four million dollars for but ended up being 90 million dollars that went in grants up to 25 000 a lot of it went to restaurants and bars for bars that were shut down temporarily ten thousand dollars for establishment was given to the bars in those ten counties we just completed another grant program in the state of iowa where we're expecting about 2200 restaurants across the state that are iowa-based full-service restaurants the group that we think was most hurt will get grants of anywhere from 15 to 20 000 so from the standpoint of state advocacy we went for money wherever we could find it and we continue to do that legislatively right now um we have a bill that made it through funnel it's this was funnel week um here at the iowa legislature that will give 12 months of forgiveness to any on-premise liquor license holder for those who had deferrals um it will go and forgive the deferrals for those who paid um they will either receive they will receive a credit and for those who are up for renewal they'll get 12 months um and so we're very hopeful that that will continue to progress we have strong legislative support for that we entered the legislative season this year which started in january it's only 100 days long in iowa with both like i said immediate and long-term relief the immediate relief was a grant program we did get that restaurant specific grant program of 40 million dollars where the money will be distributed this month we were looking for tax relief which we still hope to see come through as part of a larger tax package we needed a lot of cleanup on cocktails to go and i don't know if that was true in illinois but that was passed as a permanent fixture in our world in a very short legislative session and there were just places in code that it was passed so quickly it didn't it didn't work very well didn't make sense so um we have an amendment that alcoholic beverage division built so we think that is going to pass and we got a lot of national help from discus on that uh long term we are seeking some alcohol distribution relief um right now if you are a restaurant owner in the state of iowa you know that you how you have to buy beer how you have to buy spirits and how you have to buy wine we're looking to create equity in that long term the thing that we got sidelined by that we did not expect to be dealing with this legislative session and we can thank some of our friends in the grocery business who want to use instacart uh is third-party alcohol delivery which is currently creating some really difficult situations in iowa and we find ourselves at odds with people who are normally friends with at the legislature through pretty alcohol delivery because you know in the state of iowa if you pay door dash for alcohol and they pay the restaurant um and then they've resold it to the consumer that's bootlegging here in our state three-tier state and we can't quite figure out how this can be done legally and so we are having some rather heated conversation about a bill with four words in it so um that's that's what's happening here i want to kind of dive into that issue a bit uh we've seen some local stories here about third-party vendors and kind of what they've done to our restaurants latisha can you give your perspective do you guys work with these third-party contractors um have you had issues there what does that mean for your business so um initially when the situation began back in march of last year we were using bike squad and um they no longer operated in the area and then we went to grubhub and what we found is yes restaurants operate at a smaller margin than some other businesses and what we found is that you know typically they were charging an upwards of 30 percent yo know and so then how do you pass that on and then restaurant owners had to deal with um okay so if you're gonna charge me the 30 and the food gets there and then we've got problems with when it gets there how it gets there you know uh what you look like when you're delivering it you know uh in addition to this these additional costs that we started to improve with to go containers huge issue because you know some of us that was not a part of our normal way of doing business and even if it was we weren't doing it to the degree that we had had to do in the month of march april and june and the rest of the year and so on and so forth so so now we have um these drivers coming up and you know sort of disrupting service you know and you don't they don't look identifiable they don't have uniforms i had one one driver if you've ever been to our business we have three doors two of the doors are completely barricaded by the patio so you know you you would know do not go to these doors and then you have the one main door that you walk up to i had one guy we watched him from the dining room and i am not kidding true real life situation he gets out of his truck belly and all and was very visible and his white t-shirt and he comes up to both of the barricaded doors and he's peeking inside like this and finally you know we're going what are you doing you know and so we don't know if he's drugged out of what his situation is he has nothing in his hand he comes into the door and he's with his flip-flops and socks and t-shirt over above his belly and he goes i'm here to pick up grubhub and i said the hell you are no you're not you're not delivering my food to any of my customers not not happening today and i have to send him on his way so we have these other things right you know what they look like food safety you know food temperature i've had to ask them numerous times where are your bags where are your t-shirts you know how do how do my customers know that you're representing the company that you say you are how do i know something from your nasty face or your nasty car isn't falling into my customers package you know what i mean and so so we can control that right when it's when it's our people from our restaurant doing the delivery right we can control the standard and if your food has a standard you definitely want to deliver with the same level of standard but the other portion that was a difficult um for restaurant owners is not only the the appearance and the safety and all of that in that particular logistics but also the fact that now i'm being charged 30 on a product so now what what we were being told is that well you can make up the difference if you want and just charge more so if the sandwich costs five dollars make the sandwich eight dollars to make up your cost well i'll tell you what um that to me for me just did not work i was not going to do that um we have a lot of repeat customers and they they notice that kind of a thing the other thing i'm going to say is not not only the cost um but any time the customer wanted to tip you know or they wanted to do something additional it was very difficult the messages weren't coming across the driver to the store so the communication was really really bad you know and any time the customer was unhappy with the delivery drive or the delivery service on their platform on the group of platform or the uh bike squad or whatever the platforms are they don't always now they're starting to try to do that make a difference between the reviews for the driver as opposed to the restaurant you know so all of these things you know really took place and i i want to digress for a moment and i need to say this because i think it's very important one of the things that nobody has i've not heard conversation about but i know that every single restaurant out there we took a hit unbelievably so in one area commonly above all and that is our that swipe customers coming in swiping those credit cards that percentage you know you have some customers that would pay cash and you know in the restaurant but now everybody's doing it you know more and more customers are doing it and so what does that mean that means that more cost to do business you know and just to do the initial business so we've got the takeout we've got the cost to swipe now we've got this 30 up charge and then we're trying to keep employees alive and we're trying to you know in terms of staying in business and then we're trying to stay in business as well so there's there's a lot of different platforms that we're trying to work from i also want to say um if i may i also want to say um i appreciate jessica and matt the work that it has to happen from your end i wish that there was and perhaps there is um more conversation happening with restaurants but but in particular when i think about the grants that took place i was not able to take advantage of those grants so i think that some of the things that need to really be considered is that you have different kinds of business models and one of the things that you need to know and then i would like you to know that perhaps you know but it doesn't seem defeat that these uh that the monies is flowing in that direction and that's this you have businesses like mine that are probably in business for three years so that that time when we opened our location currently we opened that location in uh september of 2018 so our first full year was 2019 any business no matter the model no matter the type of business their first full year is the worst year it should be not a bad year but the worst year correct in terms of dollars we're only going up from there so now we come into 2020 and then we have this wonderful increase we have a projection we understand where we're going you know we we've had a great year behind us and now we're moving forward now in the middle of march we have we understand that we have to close our doors and do business differently so that march is first quarter right so when we begin to use the language of quarter you you uh while i may have had the decline it may not be in the one quarter and and and i'll say this so we've got march which is the first quarter then you've got april may june june any restaurant worthless thought should have done a killer job in iowa because the weather was absolutely perfect and the laws changed right and so that that could have totally wiped you out for that first quarter and it doesn't mean that you weren't hit hard and hurt you know with those other months that were involved and then you've got the last part of the year which was very very difficult and i'm understanding not just for my restaurant but for many many restaurants so i've got four months right of of negative you know negative flow or flow that's you know negative to me you know and but it's not in the same quarter and then when you say well it needs to be fifteen percent because to el to apply for the grant to get the grant or to get the ppp you need to be 25 or 15 overall for the year well i have to say this to you if you are a new business and your second year is 25 worse than your first year you are dead duck darling yep by the time the ambulance get there you are dead on arrival yeah and matt is there i'm sorry latisha no good can you kind of talk about you know what are the lessons that we've learned from this how is not only the illinois but the national restaurant association trying to pivot a bit and say you know we've been through this now are there ways that we can make this grant processing uh more available there's people that like letitia have been left behind is that kind of what's happening or now that we've been through it you guys are kind of working through how we can better serve these businesses uh yeah absolutely and you know latisha i i hear you all around on these issues you're definitely a prime example and kind of a microcosm of everything that restaurants are dealing with particularly on uh delivery services and then also issues with with grants and different relief programs um as anyone on the illinois side probably has seen you know the the big grant program in illinois uh wrapped up or exhausted its funding at the end of last year and uh you know a lot of people weren't happy with it there was a lot of could have been a lot of improvements when it comes to um communication and and transparency how things worked and uh you know really getting it to the industries that needed it most um so we've already we've had a lot of conversations with the states about if and when new federal money comes in to uh replenish that program really want a lot a lot of areas for improvements that we've made known and will continue to stress uh moving forward and then yeah when it comes to you know ppp um i think you know fortunately the the restaurant and hospitality industry we did secure um some favorable changes to ppp in the second draw that make it uh you know more possible for for restaurant businesses to be able to apply and and get their uh you know get their loans um um wow i'm blanking get there forgiven forgiven wow i can't i think i'm like i kept thinking like really yeah get their loans forgiven so that those were good steps and then also you know in the latest uh 25 billion dollar restaurant revitalization fund that's coming down the pike um there's a lot of um changes in that that'll be so to be more accessible really to businesses uh uh any restaurant business or any hospitality business as long as you have 20 locations or less doesn't matter your affiliation so you could do a small franchise you give you a chain you can be an independent um so that was really something that was you know everyone was happy with so um some good things coming on the pike i think there's you know always room for improvements and a lot of unique challenges that our industry faces you know when it comes to as latisha said you know being forced to look at certain quarters or a certain percentage but that doesn't really reflect you know how bad it is for us when typically you know even in a good year a restaurant is you know uh making you know three to five percent uh profit margin so maybe three pennies five pennies out of every dollar you're able to collect so um yeah i think some so definitely um good things coming on the horizon some some challenges when it comes to loans and grants that you know we're working on on the illinois side i'm sure it sounds like in iowa you're having similar challenges related to the state's grant programs and things like that and certainly at the federal level sure oh and if i might um add you know leticia it's it is really tough because in our roles we're given sophie's choice every time and so when i'm with someone from the governor's office or with debbie durham and she says look jessica i can't give you the 100 million dollars you're asking for but i can give you 40. and so we're gonna have to agree that what some of these parameters are the hardest phone calls for us have there's been two kinds and i just need to know you to know that we're thinking about it one is the small businesses that just started and we've got folks that missed like started their business on march 18th sitting in elkhorn right i mean they qualify for nothing um but the hard ones right now are people not understanding that franchise owners are small business local small business owners and those franchise owners have actually had a tougher time getting state money because the state has prioritized things that give a unique taste and flavor to iowa and what they perceive to have been the hardest hit which actually we've agreed are people who were not quickly equipped to go to carry out delivery and who have that service staff making the tip wage and how much those businesses were hurt but that's not to say that we aren't continuing to fight to get some of that grant money and on third party delivery service and matt i don't know if you're politically in a position to say this in illinois but i will tell you they're predators flat out their predators they prey on our industry they have no standards related to food safety they can have animals in the car they can vape in the car they don't have to have temperature controlled bags um they can pick up passengers between 28 of them admit to eating food before they uh hand it to people and we are at every level trying to create a framework that stops them being predatory to our industry because 30 is unacceptable and the biggest message that the legislators didn't know that we've been fighting on because alcohol delivery came out of the blue is they think that we are choosing these relationships and we're paying these people to do this they don't understand it all that there's never a situation where a restaurant pays them it's always the restaurant big either getting the full price from somebody who hasn't identified themselves as a third-party delivery service so we don't even have access to our own customer data or they're taking raking over the calls and paying you every other week with that huge dollar amount and so that is a huge conversation that this next legislative session we are taking we are taking the streets and we will need restaurants across the state to be willing to explain how difficult that has been and how many people take your menu without your permission and don't identify themselves and how it's hurting your business and i'm on a soapbox because i'm passionate and i'm angry yeah and you know as we talk about solutions matt maybe you can talk to this a bit too you know we've talked ppp but um the ertc the employee retention tax credit's been updated now that's something that i think the chambers continue to advocate for for that to be expanded and updated um can you talk a little bit about how that helps restaurants and why that might be a valuable tool for all of our attendees to know about sure and um you know as you said there there was that some definitely some nice wins for the hospitality industry and some changes that were made recently to ertc but um the irs actually just recently released its guidance for eligible businesses so they can you know access uh up to five thousand dollars per employee in 2020 as long as it doesn't uh directly intersect with pvp payroll funds and uh the national wrestling association just released a fact sheet on ertc to really help you know all of our operators um discuss you know this opportunity and let all of you guys discuss it with your tax and accounting teams because those are really the folks to talk to to make sure it makes makes sense for your business but um the recent notice from the irs does make important changes for restaurants who access ppp in 2020 and it'll allow many restaurants to access a credit that's equal to fifty percent of qualified wages paid including qualified health plan expenses for up to ten thousand dollars per employee in 2020 and uh the maximum credit available for each employee is five thousand dollars in 2020. i know there's a as i said there's a really nice uh fact sheet that kind of breaks everything down from the from the nra and uh hopefully jake you guys can you know share that with attendees after the webinar it'd be really good for for people to reference yeah actually if you open the q a for me i can stick the pdf in there it's it is an awesome document yeah we will do that we'll also send it out uh after to all of our attendees so they have that fact sheet jessica i know uh iowa in iowa uh the hospitality restaurant industry is huge in terms of workforce um what are you hearing from businesses and are there other state programs that can help keep employees uh obviously it's a huge not only for the restaurant but the employees that are working for them too how do they kind of navigate that yeah it's interesting that you would ask that because prior to covet if you were to talk to me last february and said what is your biggest problem i would say workforce workforce workforce can't find anybody work and um we when it headed into covid with 155 000 iowans employed in our industry we were not the largest private sector employer but number two after healthcare in our state um we have the last set of data shows us that about 27 000 jobs were lost in the iowa s industry due to covid um that being said in urban areas we're kind of back to the problem of finding workers again because people are trying to ramp up backup we were very fortunate in that the iowa workforce development folks the day that we started to see on-premise closures told us to tell employers get your people on unemployment and so we did massive get your people on unemployment efforts some people had checks normally within about a week um but because workforce has always been an issue in iowa you know that those 27 000 people aren't sitting around looking to come back a lot of them have found work in other places they were qualified people they were great people and we've lost them and so to be honest our biggest issue right now it back in hospitality is finding people to work again um particularly in areas like the quad cities or in des moines um because because we need them back latisha has that been an issue for you as well did you guys uh have to lay employees off are you back to normal staffing levels so um we didn't have to lay anybody off because we're small and we run really efficiently but we are at a place now that we do need to start hiring and so i feel that i definitely feel that it's very it's a challenge looking for um persons who either have that experience or um are new into the industry and excited about working in hospitality so yeah i definitely feel that great and just to follow up on that i mean when i go to baseline bistro and when people go there they talk about the great atmosphere not just the delicious food but also just that they enjoy being inside the restaurant uh do you guys do carryout orders are you seeing a lot of carryout business now obviously when the doors were closed you had to do that but are people coming back in now and spending time there they are they're pretty excited about the patio being open back up so that's a huge part of the business you know um and i think for the industry as a whole just as the weather gets warmer um we do still do a lot of takeout um we occasionally do some of the third party you know it's you know our customer has decided no i'm coming down i'll come down and pick up so we don't see very much from third party anymore um some days more than others of course and then you know people are enjoying the dining room setting so i will say this also in terms of seating now i know that iowa doesn't have any restrictions but we are a small restaurant and so um before covid we set up to 42 now we sit about 22 to 24 um and we remain that way because what we're finding is is that it is the customer who determines what what how they want things to be and they want to sit that six feet apart they want to feel the distance between the next table you know they don't want their backs next to somebody else and i've had other people uh come in and be very grateful that we haven't returned to that because they feel very uncomfortable in other places with that uh with everybody being close again so you know um we pay the cost for that right you know in terms of having less seats you know those are less tables you know to turn you know and so we're definitely looking forward to the patio opening back up for seating's sake great and just a reminder to attendees if you all have questions for jessica batter and latisha please put those in the q a and we'll uh get to those as we start to wrap up here a bit uh matt and jessica again in the quad cities we've had a really strong response to let's support local businesses we call it keep it qc let's make sure that we're buying gift cards that you're doing these carryout orders when businesses are really struggling are there other things that you found in illinois and in iowa that have been success successful methods to continue supporting businesses um that we could share with not only restaurant owners today but just our community at large there are other things they can be doing to make sure restaurants are viable during this um matt i can pop in there and one of the things that we've been doing here in iowa is really sharing with people what profit margins look like and pre-covered the average iowa restaurant had a net profit of 97 a day and when you are making averages that's the number of restaurants divided by 365 looking at our gross uh receipts in the state and then taking it down assuming a five percent profit averages mean there were people that were below that and so what we have asked people to do is even though the restrictions are off and you're starting to slowly see no restaurant turned over and put all their tables back in threw the mask off their staff and called it said oh everything's better right what it did do by lifting restrictions is allow businesses to decide how is it going to work for us to slowly determine how our what our customers are comfortable with and depending on your demographic it might be more tables it might not it might be continuing to do what you were but what we've asked people to do is for the next six months to get us over the hump if you regularly go to a restaurant twice a week go one more time go three times if you go five times go six times if you go one time go two times because that extra use of whatever service type carry out dine in delivery however you drive through whatever you do that might be the difference maker if your regular customers just see you through a little bit longer on support and that's what we've really been promoting and we have had good luck locally with people sharing that message as well yeah definitely and just to echo what jessica was saying i think you know encouraging diners maybe and to come in kind of at off-peak hours too that's really helpful you know to really just keep the restaurant business going throughout the day ordering direct of course you know kind of sidestepping third-party delivery services you know we as we all know all the issues going on there and you're losing 30 of your revenue you know ordering direct uh that's certainly what we encourage also you know what we've done at the ira a couple times throughout the pandemic has really put out like education campaigns just um you know reminding people that restaurants are here they know how to serve you safely than now and always you know the importance of wearing masks the importance of social distancing being respectful of each other you know being safe um just things like that to really just kind of try to boost consumer confidence and then on the you know kind of on the more like um government fronts and and regulatory fronts definitely encourage them you know any local municipalities to consider capping third-party delivery fees i mean it's becoming more and more prominent and um you know delivery services you know you can't live with them can't live without them i mean they provide a crucial service right now especially during covid but there is a vast amount of room for improvement in the way that delivery services uh treats restaurants um so exploring capping third party delivery service fees is definitely something i would encourage municipalities to do other things that are really important as you know latisha was saying people are expecting and excited for outdoor dining so if there are any restrictions in the quad cities um you know about oh we can't really do that with outdoor dining or oh no that's that's the building's department not the health department like have your city figure out a way to make it work because it's like we we we all kind of understand that kobe you know it's we're not going to snap our fingers and have it go away overnight and we're kind of at the levels of occupancy that we're going to be at for a while until there's a vaccine readily available to everyone so out you can only get so many people inside of space but outdoors you know on your sidewalks closing down streets parkways alleys whatever it might be you know really encourage your your local governments to come up with innovative solutions and break down whatever barriers there are to expanded outdoor dining because that's what people expect that's what they're excited for and that's what the restaurants really are going to rely on for the next several months um a couple other things um that would be helpful you know if there's meal taxes in the area restaurant taxes consider suspending those or allowing restaurants to keep that money for a little bit longer you know just to help with cash flow and then other things like i know like it sounds like the the chamber is doing a great job at just encouraging those like you know shop local different restaurant weeks different promotions take out tuesdays things like that anything to just drum up awareness and really um you know bolster our local restaurants you know it all it all helps right now absolutely matt you did a great job leading me into uh just so all of our attendees know uh quad cities restaurant week does kick off on march 22nd so as we're talking about this it's another way it's a week where we're asking people to shop local and go out and support all of our local restaurants so um i wish every week was like that but we're really focusing march 22nd that's the first week we're really going to continue to ask people to support local businesses and jessica please chime in there we've got a few minutes left so yeah you gotta have a closing comment well there is one thing yeah that's different between the iowa side and the illinois side and that is that cities can't do those things in iowa because of preemption laws so there is no if if anything's going to happen to cap fees or do legislation related to third party it really is going to come at the state level i would include anyone who is on the iowa side to go look at the iowa restaurant association site we have four key areas that we're asking for at the state level for third party delivery and sharing that with your local legislator would be helpful city councils can't do much in iowa related to that particular topic great and leticia matt i'll let you guys kind of close this out here if you can just any final comments on how we can continue to latisha how people can support you and matt if there's any advocacy pushes that are happening in illinois please let everybody in attendance know about those um first before i close i just want to say thank you to every single account in the united states because our accountants um they had to really make it happen for every small business every the push for ppp i don't think we realize how much we how much work they had to do and are still doing to make sure that our books are right you know and that our taxes get done and that you know we're getting these different grants and how much we're depending on them probably more than we ever have so i just want to say thank you to all of the accountants out there who are on the call and anywhere else um so based on bistro what you need to know is that we make everything from scratch that's what you got to know it's just it's just down home goodness and so don't ask me when you come in where am i from because i'm not from the south i'm from the south side of chicago so there you have it somebody asked me what the heck island i was from i'm like what the heck i don't have an accent but uh but the food is made from scratch and with lots and lots of love we treat you just like family when you come in and we do cater and i want to thank all of the larger corporations out there during the pandemic i tell you what you really kept some of our businesses alive by uh calling us up and getting some catering done um and to help your employees through that time and everybody stay safe and so if you could continue to do that that would really really help us out call me up i can help you out anybody else out there can help you out so um that collaboration between the larger corporations in the area and restaurants is a huge help so i just want to say thanks for that and then we are now open uh for reservations for dinner um at bayside bistro in the village of east davenport great latisha i like the uh south side shop shout outs uh i i'm uh i'm a south sider as well i love them on greenwood so blue island there you go so uh yeah just just a few of the things i want people you know to be aware of uh reach out to me or anyone the ira team anytime you can sign up for our emails on our website you know i think we've sent something like 250 email you know alerts out over the past 10 months just getting people the information they need to know breaking alerts you know different guidance things like that we also have for your employees if uh if they're not aware already our educational fund foundation launched our employee relief fund last fall we've given out over 250 thousand dollars in 500 grants to more than 500 recipients so far throughout the state so please please send them our way if your folks still are in you know need of financial assistance we've got some pro bono consulting networks of attorneys and dining design networks our dining design experts as well as a you know database of reopening services that can help and uh we also recently formed a partnership with acap and the loan source uh to help restaurants secure ppp loans so if you don't have a banking relationship or you're still looking for ppp definitely encourage you to explore that and then we're also doing pretty much bi-weekly webinars on different issues bringing on experts to talk about things like generating new revenue uh mental health supports marketing strategies increasing off-premise sales real estate concerns stuff like that so you can find all that information on our website uh we're here to help so please feel free to reach out to us anytime great well matt latisha jessica thank you so much for joining us this morning and giving everybody here in the quad cities a little bit more information on what they can continue to do to support restaurants we appreciate you guys joining us uh i want to give a another shout out again to our legislative series annual sponsors am general archonic exelon generations and stanley consultants uh for everyone on the call our next legislative event will also take place uh friday march 19th at 9 00 a.m so we'll hope you'll join us for that um and again thank you to our panelists we really appreciate it uh until then hope everyone has a great great weekend continue to support our local businesses and go get some great food at bayside so thank you everybody for joining us this morning thanks everyone