Seen & Heard: Fundraiser started for Edward’s staff

GO FUND ME FOR EDWARD’S STAFF
Edward Youkilis, who opened his eponymous restaurant on West Broadway nearly 20 years ago, has started a GoFundMe page to support his employees, many of which have been at the restaurant since 2001. He’s appealing to neighbors for help, and noted that 100 percent of the funds will go to employees. The restaurant is also open for delivery and takeout to help offset the losses and keep some staff working.

AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS CREATE COLLECTIVE POLICY
Some of the local kids activity providers have put their heads together to try to find ways to keep their businesses alive through the ban on all group activities. Those include Brooklyn Game Lab, Playgarden, Spotlight Kids, Brooklyn Robot Foundry and Pixel Academy. Within the next two weeks, they all hope to have their programs online. “Please be patient as we pivot to this new reality. We are counting on your understanding, support, and flexibility, so that we can continue to serve you for many years,” they said in a statement. “To enable our businesses to continue operating through and beyond this unanticipated crisis, we are adopting the following policies for refunds and credits:

  • For all families enrolled in classes and programs transitioning to an online format, studios will not offer credits or refunds.
  • For any classes, birthday parties, or other non-enrollment based programming that has been postponed, families will be offered credit.
  • No refunds will be issued.
  • Families enrolled in month-to-month programming will be subject to the same terms and conditions for cancellation as when they originally enrolled.”

HELPING THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY
A pair of public relations folks have created a way to help restaurants while diners are banned with the concept of dining bonds. Since many restaurants have asked customers to consider buying gift certificates, Steven Hall (Hall PR) and Helen Patrikis (HP-PR) thought to create an aggregator of those restaurants citywide, so it’s easier for folks to help out. There’s also a bonus: a $75 purchase gets you $100 in value when the restaurant reopens. “It’s playing off the idea of a savings bond,” said Steven. “And while it would not increase in value, they can be sold at a lower price than the face value and redeemed at the higher value.” And it gets cash in the pockets of restaurant owners immediately.

Anejo and Zucker’s have signed on, along with about another 100 restaurants in the city. There are some catches: many restaurants aren’t set up for online gift card purchases, so if you really want to help, it might require making a phone call. Check out the list here.

SNOW, AT LAST
In one of the oddest pandemic sightings, C. sent these photos from last week: fake snow banks spotted on Greenwich just north of Canal. Hard to remember back to when people were making movies and TV shows on the streets. Might make us nostalgic for film shoot parking permits.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS AS ART
A digital art curator at ArtHouseNYC has created some cool PSAs for the pandemic from the organization’s library of artwork.

 

1 Comment

  1. There are also employee funds on go fund me for Batard staff as well as Tribeca Grill.
    https://www.gofundme.com/f/batard-workers-fund
    https://www.gofundme.com/f/tribeca-grill-employee-relief-fund

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