Article

Not a Rebel, Just a Cause

Matt Brice found himself in the national spotlight when he reopened the Hedwig Village location of the Federal Grill, his Houston-metro upscale casual concept, during a statewide shutdown of restaurants. "I'm not political. I have no ill will against anyone," he says. "Some of the media kept using the word 'defy'. I was just trying to reopen the economy and get other people involved," he explains.

Shortly thereafter, Texas's Governor Greg Abbott relaxed restrictions to allow limited-capacity dine-in service at the end of April, but not before the media turned its attention to Brice. "A few people got the word I was opening," he says. "I didn't want it to blow up this big. Where it exploded was when I got a call from a radio show," he says. "The media exposure kept coming in. "When I spoke to Brice on April 28, he had just been interviewed on CNN's morning show.

On April 24, Matt Brice reopened one of his units, against government shutdown orders. Contradicting the suggestion of several media reports, Brice says it was not a media stunt or a political statement, but driven only by concern for Texas's hospitality workers. It is a story that speaks to the heart, soul and ingenuity of the independent restaurateur.

Brice says he is just an independent restaurateur who became disheartened by the suffering of hospitality workers left unemployed by the state COVID-19 shutdown of restaurants and hotels. "Texas employs 1.3 million workers in hospitality, with predictions the number would have climbed to 1.5 million next year. We are 10% of the labor pool here," he explains, continuing, "We saw the number of virus cases stabilizing in Texas, with no hard dates for reopening."His goal: "To get people back to work. We needed to get open. Hospitality workers needed food.

It was really disheartening for all my friends in the business, "says Brice. When the word got out about his plans, a representative from the governor's office asked if he would stay closed until Greg Abbott decided what to do. Nevertheless, Brice went forward with his plans. "When I say small businesses were crushed, I mean they were really crushed," he adds. "A woman called me crying, wanting to buy a $100 gift card, and she couldn't afford it.

The Hedwig Village location opened three weeks prior to the state shutdown. "It was brand new. I was holding a couple-million-dollar note and had 42 staff members on payroll. Prior to reopening for dine-in service on April 24, says Brice, "we were still open for delivery and to-go," he says. "It wasn't all bad, but only amounted to 20% of our prior business and it stopped some of the bleeding.

"If you have followed RestaurantOwner.com and Restaurant Startup & Growth through this crisis, you know one of the axioms of surviving this crisis is fostering community support, which is an advantage of the independent operator. Brice's other unit is in Washington, Texas, about seven miles from Hedwig Village. Brice attributes community support for his successful reopening for dine-in service on April 24. He received a written declaration of support from local government and the mayor and police department of Hedwig Village.

Brice was hardly reckless in his plans to reopen for dine-in service. "I created a proposal for safety standards that went above and beyond health department and Texas Restaurant Association recommendations," he said. He invited review and comment of the standards by state restaurant leaders, including Chris Pappas from Pappas restaurants. Brice realized the only way to manage service safely and abide by social distancing standards was to only seat guests who had reservations. When he opened the restaurant's systems for reservations, Brice found 3,000 people wanted to come in. "I already had the first day booked," he says.

"I followed standards since day one, "Brice continues. "The key to this success in terms of social distancing means you have to require reservations. If you don't have a reservation system you need to have complete control at the door. You can't have walk-ins. It works if everyone respects that. Restaurants have an advantage over Home Depot and Walmart in that we can control social distancing. Reservations allow operators to control the flow of the dining area," says Brice.

"When we opened it, we felt our safety standards had to be perfect. We only used 30% of capacity, and slowly worked on systems to make people feel safe." Brice did not want to remove tables from the dining room to avoid it looking cavernous and make the guests feel more separated than necessary. "I didn't want it to look apocalyptic."Instead, he placed black linen on certain tables to indicate guests should not be seated at them. "If the table had white linen, you could sit there. "All services staff members were equipped with masks and gloves. "I'm not a fan of gloves," says Brice. "But people like to see them."If a table has black linen, you can't sit there, white linen you could sit there. Have a visual of everyone else. Brice also required every employee's temperature be checked prior to checking in. To reduce handling of credit cards and cash, Brice is encouraging hands-free payment systems, including Pay Pal and Venmo. On the dining room walls, instructional posters remind employees and guests of the news rules of the "new normal" and reassure guests Federal Grill is committed to creating a safe and healthy environment.

Meanwhile, Brice also took efforts to make this new normal less weird. To overcome the impersonal nature of the personal protection equipment, says Brice, "we tried to make the masks fun, "His guests met him more than halfway, and brought a healthy dose of good cheer. When asked about the "vibe" of the service, he says "People were waving to each other from afar. You could see the restraint people had to exercise restraint not to hug each other. It was really clear people were happy to sit with their friends and family, to be on a date.

"His commitment to Texas's restaurant industry has not stopped there. He is in the process of creating a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to provide funding to independent restaurateurs who are struggling through this crisis and had raised $15,000 at the time of this writing.

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