Ford’s Fish Shack owner Tony Stafford implores people to support restaurants during the pandemic by buying giftcards or ordering takeout so they can continue employing their staff during the holidays.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian welcome back everyone,
Brian welcome back everyone.
Twenty three minutes after the hour,
Virginias Cambel County, taking
a stand against Governor
Northams, coronavirus,
reevictions and declaring itself
a first amendment sanctuary
three different restaurants who
joined us back in April. After
speaking, directly to President
Trump about the positive impact
the paycheck protection program
had on his business.
He has since run out of PPP
money,
chef and owner of Fords FISH
Shack in virginiaa. Tony Stafford
is with us now
good morning.
Brian, the money is out.
You are fifty percent capacity.
Worse could be coming because
the virus is not going away.
What have you decided to do
our backs are against the
wall.
We are fighting every day.
I have to support my employees
and save my job.
We are trying to get the message
out to support our restaurants,
Brian First Amendment sanctuary.
What does that entail?
First, amendment sanctuary
from what I understand is.
Basically we are stepping out
and saying that we are not that
county. That declared sanctuary
but im very proud of my fellow
Virginia residents for standing
up and doing that, and we have
got to stick this out and save
our jobs.
Brian. You know its so
different.
The governor came out and he
understood and he stared you in
the eye and five hundred restaurants in
your county and said hey. This
is what im worried about.
This is what were doing.
You showed him the plexiglass
and showed him the separation
we wouldnt be here.
There is no willingness from
this governor to make that
effort
yeah.
We are just very frustrated that
jobs, jobs, jobs.
We have my litittle three
restaurants from one hundred and twenty one hundred and forty jobs.
I have got to look these
employees in the eye and say I
dont know if you will have a
job tomorrow in the middle of
holiday.
Our backs are against the wall,
come and support us,
its very frustrating
Brian. Are you world Thehe Sheri
is going to show up at all five hundred
restaurants and what they did in
Staten Island and start
arresting people. If you stay
open,
I would hope it wouldnt come
to that
again. We are just small
business owners trying to run
our businesses a and run them
safely and practice social
distancing and support our local
people that have supported us
over these years.
Its become a struggle.
Brian Tony. The other thing is
the misinformation.
The government makes a statement
about assembly
all of a sudden people think in
Virginia. I guess I cant go to a
restaurant, because there is more
than twenty five people there.
You have a message for the
people that want to go out to
eat,
yeah
come and have us,
our dining rooms are open,
sit in our dining rooms.
We are practicing social
distancing,
support us during this holiday
season and support our
employees.
Help get us through
this buy gift cards and takeout.
There is ways: can you support
gift cards during the holiday
season?
Instead of buying your mom, a
pair of with a jam mass, buy a
gift card to a restaurant
Brian? How many pajamas does she
need?
You have a food truck too.
We do
three restaurants, Ford, fish,
shack,
fresh New England Seafood and a
food truck out there. Just
hitting the ground running.
My employees have been great and
supportive of all of this.
They just want to keep their
jobs and dont want to go
through. Another round of
layoffs,
come support, all your
restaurants and small businesses
and small business restaurants,
Brian. When you trace back from
restaurants, the infection rate
is not high.
You are taking precautions
because you want to stay in
business too.
If word gets out that you are
not taking precautions, nobody is
coming.
You are and infections staying
low.
We know there is a virus. Why
kill business along with it?.
Transcript generated on 2020-12-04.