STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — At St. Joseph Hill Academy, Sr. M. Charlotte told us about the Ides of March. Latin class prompted us wear black bands on our arm to commemorate the anniversary of Julius Caesar’s death, the Ides of March. But it’s not the 1,977th anniversary to mourn these days but a modern day somber moment in time upon which to reflect — March 15, 2020 — that day a light switch turned off with restaurants.
Mike Esposito of The Richmond in Stapleton recalls the fateful day. He said, “I thought I’d be going back to work after two weeks. I remember seeing the last couple of customers to leave the restaurant that night and we’d be back to business as usual. I didn’t know it was going to be a year of such a life-changing experience. It was nothing like anticipated.” The memory comes back to him when he sees those very pair of guests as they’ve returned in these times of limited outdoor dining.
Rosemarie Saladino of Marina Cafe said, “That was the day they announced we had to close. The cops had come in in the afternoon and said we had to be out of the building by 8 p.m. We ripped apart the kitchen and gave the food away, gave the food to staff.”
She remembered, “It was a very somber day because people didn’t really know what was going on. We were cleaning and prepping and getting rid of food. We cancelled any orders we had coming in — any parties, any reservations. I remember we had a funeral that day and we were like, ‘It’s the last time we’re going to have people in here. It was a freaky time.”
Flashback to May, 2020: Al fresco dining at Marina Cafe has been expanded. Here are owners Joe Labriola, left, Rosemarie Saladino and Rob Parascandola. (Courtesy of Marina Cafe)
Janessa Rubino of Facebook page “Eat Your Heart out New York” said, “I remember stopping at Laila’s to pickup a to-go order. It was heartbreaking to see an empty dining room.” She saw that day how sad were owners Amal and Alan Dakhlallah.
Janessa said, “We got teary-eyed. I couldn’t believe this was reality. They’re always so positive. I could also see the fear of uncertainty.” And her restaurant-centric Facebook page posts dropped by half.
“Everyone was closing. There were no specials to promote,” she observed. Most Staten Islanders were fearful of dining out so there were no dishes share.
Alan admits, “It was just crazy. We did delivery for a week or two. Then we shut down for the whole April until May, a good 40 days. We were just sitting at home. Never in my life have I sat home for 40 days. The restaurant wasn’t even a year old.”
Alan Dakhlallah in front of Laila Restaurant during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. (Staten Island Advance/ Victoria Priola)
After further reflection he said, “It was just a scary time. It was like last year never existed. Last year doesn’t count.”
From the produce guys to the fishmongers, friends who serviced the industry collectively experienced 100% cancellations on orders starting around 8 p.m. on March 15, 2020. Many of us hoarded food and pillaged supermarkets...and the rest is toilet paper history.
Coming back from church on the Ides of March 2020 — that would be the last time for months — I headed straight to an East Shore restaurant, summoned by a local artist who was making a “huge restaurant announcement.”
His story that never got reported that Sunday was about how Staten Islanders could “COVID-proof” the borough’s restaurants — no kidding — and it’s OK to laugh aloud because the notion really was ridiculous. If only that were the solution to nip the pandemic in the bud we wouldn’t be in this position of limited seating capacities and scores of deaths over the year.
But anyway, that meeting was sobering: it was a time when we desperately sought leadership and clarity. And the reality at the time was that we would take answers from anyone who took charge.
Back when we were in 2020: The final day of school for Andrew and James Cavagnaro watching a ceremony on Zoom with Grandpa. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)
And so there was a working Mommy in charge of two little boys, Andrew and James, as we home-schooled and chronicled the implications of a dying restaurant industry from within four walls. Our little guy, now 12, reminded the other day on how we lived our lives on alarms. There was an alarm for wakeup, several for meal and break times, one for pretend school starting and ending times. Time — that we had a lot of on our hands back then. It’s the one thing I might miss the most.
Yet forever I will be leery of the Ides of March.
Keep in touch.
Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.
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