Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta said on CNBC that at only 25% maximum capacity New York restaurants are going to go out of business:
New York Restaurants Are Not Going To Last
Restaurants are not going to last at these kinds of numbers. Anybody who has a restaurant in New York that is full-service casual dining at 25% is going to go out of business. It’s really a shame. People have taken years and years and years to build these restaurants up. I have a huge company with restaurants in 40 states. I have casinos that are doing well. But if you are a New York restaurateur you’re in for a long haul right now.
I will say it again. I don’t think that the government officials realize it because they get their paycheck every single week. They don’t realize that these cooks, these waiters, these hostesses, and then the managers at these restaurants, and how difficult it is when you are not getting a paycheck every week. And you don’t get that $600 kick from the government anymore. So you are going to see unemployment stay probably where it is until we get through the winter months and we start to improve things hopefully or the vaccine comes out.
Don’t Punish Me Just Because I’m Big
My whole problem has been I definitely want to take care of the small mom and pop businesses. I think we should also take care of the airlines. But you can’t leave people out like me. I’m a 100% owned family business. Don’t punish me just because I’m big and I provide 60,000 jobs out there. I can’t make a 60,000 payroll if they shut us down again. I don’t want to have to lay my employees off again. There has got to be something that treats everybody. Forget about the ownership.
Why should an employee (not get helped out) because you work for a billionaire and you don’t? Or, a person that isn’t the front person of the company. I know people that have billionaires that really own restaurants and the chef only owns a small percentage but they were all able to take PPP money because they are not at the forefront like I am. I just want to see everybody treated the same. The government definitely needs to come in and help everyone but it should be for all employees of all businesses, especially restaurants and retail. Don’t look at ownership. Make the money go to the employees. Don’t worry about me.
“Until we fix this occupancy problem, even though you are open, it is not possible to pay full rent,” says Landry CEO and reality TV host Tilman Fertitta. “How do you pay a mortgage when you only operating at 25 percent or 50 percent? To all of you judges out there, this is a taking by the state and the government when you take 50 percent of my occupancy.”
Tilman Fertitta, Landry’s chairman, and CEO talks about his frustration with the incompetence of the State of New York and the City of New York in dealing with restaurant reopenings:
It’s Unbelievable That New York Won’t Give Us A Metric To Reopen
We love to complain about leadership on a national level and on some state levels but nobody knows what to do. Everybody wants to blame DC right now but we are sitting here in New York and they can’t even give us the metics and say if the pandemic only has this much hospitalization or cases for a 14-day rolling average. Then you can plan on opening your restaurants at 25 or 50 percent. We get absolutely no information at all out of the State of New York and the City of New York. The City of New York is unbelievable that they will not give us a metric when they can open these restaurants.
Just think about it. Everything is a metric and everything is data points. We all want to blame everybody else for the data points and not making decisions. Wouldn’t you look at four or five key data points and say as soon as we hit these data points you are going to open? What is so difficult about that? We hear about the great leadership of New York and up east in New Jersey while we are treating the rest of the country like they’re from other countries that they are quarantining us and they can’t even go visit up there. It’s ridiculous right now. Yet they won’t even give us business and data points to operate. In New Jersey, you still can’t have a drink of water in the casino unless you are dehydrating and you are about to pass out. It’s extremely comical to me.
Lack Of Unions In Regional Casinos Enabling Them To Thrive
All the regional casinos are doing extremely well, take out New Jersey of course. I hate to say this but the reason the regional casinos are doing so much EBITA right now is that number one, people are moving around, they don’t have to fly in, and you don’t have the union wages in the regional casinos. They are also not opening their buffets and all their full service restaurants. You are really able to watch your costs in a regional casino that you can’t in Vegas or in New Jersey where you have the high union wages. It’s tremendously helping us all.
But we are doing 100 percent of the same gaming revenue in the regional casinos where in Vegas you are doing below 50 percent and in Atlantic City, you are doing about 40 percent. Regional is where you want to be right now.
Not Letting Restaurants Open Fully Is a ‘Taking By The State”
The State of Missouri is one of the few states that lets us open 100 percent of the occupancy of our restaurants as long as we keep six-foot distancing, which we 100 percent do and abide by. They’re for it because you are able to open the establishment and can seat your seats and still be careful. That’s why you are running the best same-store sales comps in that particular market right now.
Until we fix this occupancy problem, even though you are open, how do you pay full rent? How do you pay a mortgage when you only operating at 25 percent or 50 percent? To all of you judges out there, this is a taking by the state and the government when you take 50 percent of my occupancy.
Disney Is Not Even Hitting 20% Occupancy Target Right Now
We are down 70 percent in Orlando and we have some of the biggest stores at Disney. They are coming out now and saying it. The traffic is just not there. I give Disney a lot of credit for going out and putting great protocols to protect their guests. They were only going to let 20 percent of the park’s occupancy come in. I don’t think they are even doing 20 percent.
This is a problem all over America right now that you can’t even do the business. I’m not speaking for Disney but I know my restaurants aren’t doing 20 percent down there right now. We usually do a lot more than the parks do when it comes to percentages.
Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta: Not Letting Restaurants Open Fully Is a ‘Taking By The State’
Billionaire restaurant entrepreneur and Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta has had it with governors and mayors and their inconsistent “yo-yo” shutdown orders on his restaurants and the economy. He notes that despite news reports, hospitals are not even close to being overrun. “We’re not about to run out of hospital beds where we’re going to have people laying on the curve of the hospital.”
Fertitta is exasperated at the apparent lack of compassion that governors and mayors around the country have for the “poor working people of America” right now. “You cannot shut down the economy,” says Fertitta. “You cannot do this to employees. They did it to us again yesterday in California where they shut us down. There is no consideration at all for the poor working people of America right now the way they’re doing the yo-yo.”
Fertitta adds: “The problem is I’ve yet to see an elected official miss a paycheck. Until an elected official misses a paycheck and feels some pain this is going to continue to happen.”
We went through this shutdown a couple of weeks ago and the people were back out this weekend. But remember, restaurants can only operate at 50 percent capacity. There are no bars or clubs and everybody’s being careful and everybody’s wearing face masks. We kind of leveled off at around negative 50 right now. But it’s tough out there.
We hear all these stories about the hospitals in Texas. Let me just give you Texas Medical Center in Houston which is one of the largest in the world. I think it is the largest. They’re in phase two at nine percent (capacity). This is phase two out of three phases. We’re not about to run out of hospital beds where we’re going to have people laying on the curve of the hospital. You got to remember there are 350 million people, only one percent or 340,000 people have had it. That’s less than one percent. This has got to work itself through the community and we’ve got to protect the people that can get it.
Elected Officials Are Not Worried About The Little People
At the same, you cannot shut down the economy. You cannot do this to employees. They did it to us again yesterday in California where they shut us down. There is no consideration at all for the poor working people of America right now the way they’re doing the yo-yo. The problem is I’ve yet to see an elected official miss a paycheck. Until an elected official misses a paycheck and feels some pain this is going to continue to happen.
They’re not worried about all the little people out there that are such hardworking people that make America thrive. They get their paychecks. Get them to give up 50 percent of their paychecks and feel some pain and then they’ll make better decisions for all the working people out there.
We Cannot Continue To Have The Rules Change On Us
The problem is that we’ve got mayors, governors, city, and county judges trying to make decisions. I think it is time for the government to come in and if it’s signing the War Act or whatever and doing something across the board. Remember, how you can be fair is you use percentages. If your county or city or state has this percentage of cases these are the rules you follow. This is what has to be shut down. I do think it should be federally mandated to treat everybody the same.
We cannot continue to have governors and mayors change the rules on us every other week. That is what’s happening right now. It’s totally unfair. Less than one percent of America has gotten COVID and it’s not going away. If you think your kids are going back to school and if you think all these sports are going to be played in a normal season, it’s not going to happen. Somebody’s got to take control of this situation and mandate what we all do.
You Cannot Keep Your Employees At Work Down 54 Percent
Vegas is struggling because you’re not getting all the flights in. Vegas is so built on the convention business and so vegas is struggling. In Atlantic City, there’s nothing open in the restaurant. You can’t take a drink of water and take your mask off unless it’s a health issue where you’re dehydrated and about to pass out. But Lake Charles, Laughlin, Biloxi, all your regional casinos around the country, are doing okay. They really are. But Vegas is struggling and Atlantic City is struggling.
Let’s get into the restaurants. Your higher-end restaurants are doing better right now because you’re in July. Your waterfront restaurants are doing okay. But remember, you get back into your urban areas, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and there is nobody there. Most of them are just shut down or barely doing delivery to go. Overall, when you look at all my 600 restaurants in the month of July, I’m down 54 percent. You cannot operate at negative 54 percent. You cannot keep your employees at work at 54 percent.
Elected Officials Are Not Worried About The Little People, Says Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta
