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Local restaurants still struggling to bring in customers as pandemic wears on

The Indiana Restaurant & Lodging Association reports 81% of restaurants have seen a drop in indoor dining because of the COVID-19 omicron variant.

INDIANAPOLIS — The lunch crowd at Half Liter BBQ & Beer Hall Thursday was not really a crowd. That's the ongoing pandemic problem. 

"The restaurants that are family-owned, multi-generational, family dining to fine dining, were the restaurants that did not make it,” said Patrick Tamm, Indiana Restaurant & Lodging Association president and CEO, during a news conference at the restaurant and microbrewery. 

INRLA reports 81% of restaurants have seen a drop in indoor dining because of the COVID-19 omicron variant.  

Sahm's Hospitality Group operates 13 restaurants and catering, including Half Liter BBQ & Beer Hall. The company applied for $3.3 million from the federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund, but the $28.6 billion fund ran out.  

The U.S. Small Business Administration says 1,192 Indiana businesses received grants totaling $242,055,766 from the RRF.  

Restaurant owners are asking Congress to replenish the fund with up to another $60 billion. 

"Our food service industry has winners and losers,” said Sahm’s Hospitality Group President and CEO Ed Sahm. “The winners are clear. They're the drive-thrus. They're the national chains. They're the fast food places. They are thriving. Obviously, our side of the industry, the full-service neighborhood place, mom-and-pop - we're speaking for the other 57% of restaurants. We're not speaking for ourselves here."  

Half of the Half Liter BBQ & Beer Hall building is a large private event space. Many of those catering events just are not happening during the pandemic. Events are still getting canceled or just never going on the schedule.

"We're trying not to scale back,” said Eddie Sahm, Sahm's Hospitality Group chief operating officer. “We're trying not to make drastic changes. We're trying not to let people go. We're trying to pay people fair wages. We're acting responsibly, doing it over and over and over again. But if we don't get the funds, which we were told we were going to get, we have to make changes."

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Giorgio's Pizza just off Monument Circle received $112,904 from the RRF. 

“Absolutely they were vital,” said owner George Stergiopoulus. “We wouldn't have survived it." 

Credit: WTHR
Employees at Giorgio's Pizza off Monument Circle need workers back in offices downtown who would keep their lunch hours busy.

He is still waiting for workers to return to downtown office buildings.   

"I need to see butts in the seats,” said Stergiopoulos. “That's part of what we do. I've been doing that all my life. I'm not against DoorDash. I'm not against Grubhub and the delivery services. We deliver, too. But we need to see people inside, especially during the lunch hour, at a place like this."

Stergiopoulos also owns the Greek Islands restaurant, which received $40,397.29 in RRF funding. 

RELATED: Omicron causes anxiety for restaurants amid already high food costs

"It's definitely a survival game out here,” said Stergiopoulos. “We're resilient. That's a good thing. But yeah, there has to be some availability for assistance out there." 

An INRLA survey reports that business is worse now than just three months ago at 69% of restaurants. Fifty-seven percent of the restaurants that applied for grants but have not received money do not expect to be in business beyond the pandemic without that financial assistance.

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