Help Us Save Outer Orbit!
Donation protected
Well, this is certainly not the campaign we ever wanted to start. Not unlike the many businesses across our city and state, we have found ourselves knocking on the doorstep of permanent closure. When the first closure happened this past March, we felt that it was best to close our doors as the looming threat of COVID-19 began to spread across America. Even when the opportunity came to provide to-go only services, we waited even longer. The health and safety of our staff and community greatly outweighed the small benefit of reopening at that time. Before we knew it, July arrived and it was time for us to reopen with a slightly different approach to our business. Our menu was completely reimagined and our beer/wine offerings were the very best they’ve ever been.
A couple of weeks into July we built out our first parklet. We were elated at the opportunity for all of our guests to be able to hang out, enjoy our food and play some pinball while they were at it. Believing that the outdoor dining scene in San Francisco was not soon to go away, we felt that investing in a fancier, cozier space would provide safe cover in the coming rains.
And so we did.
Less than two weeks into our new platform, San Francisco announced that we would, once again, head into shelter-in-place.
And here we are.
We’ll spare you all of the grueling financial details as it’s likely the same story you’ve heard too many times, but our To-Go service doesn't even cover its own labor costs. So we'll be taking out a loan to cover most of our operating costs, and the majority of this Go-Fund-Me campaign will go towards ensuring we can keep our staff employed for the next three months.
Like a lot of other businesses, our goal is to make it through this lockdown and come out the other side even stronger.
But the time has come for us to be honest with ourselves and admit that it simply cannot and will not happen without help. We have only resorted to using this platform once before when one of our cooks was quarantined with a family member that had contracted COVID. And to those of you that donated then, we are extremely grateful!
This time feels quite a bit different. Asking for money is tough. It doesn’t feel great. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it sucks a whole lot. But it is what we are doing because we believe in our business. We believe that we have an invaluable connection to our community and that those who experience Outer Orbit really do experience something special.
Please be safe out there. Thank you all!
Humbly,
Outer Orbit
A couple of weeks into July we built out our first parklet. We were elated at the opportunity for all of our guests to be able to hang out, enjoy our food and play some pinball while they were at it. Believing that the outdoor dining scene in San Francisco was not soon to go away, we felt that investing in a fancier, cozier space would provide safe cover in the coming rains.
And so we did.
Less than two weeks into our new platform, San Francisco announced that we would, once again, head into shelter-in-place.
And here we are.
We’ll spare you all of the grueling financial details as it’s likely the same story you’ve heard too many times, but our To-Go service doesn't even cover its own labor costs. So we'll be taking out a loan to cover most of our operating costs, and the majority of this Go-Fund-Me campaign will go towards ensuring we can keep our staff employed for the next three months.
Like a lot of other businesses, our goal is to make it through this lockdown and come out the other side even stronger.
But the time has come for us to be honest with ourselves and admit that it simply cannot and will not happen without help. We have only resorted to using this platform once before when one of our cooks was quarantined with a family member that had contracted COVID. And to those of you that donated then, we are extremely grateful!
This time feels quite a bit different. Asking for money is tough. It doesn’t feel great. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it sucks a whole lot. But it is what we are doing because we believe in our business. We believe that we have an invaluable connection to our community and that those who experience Outer Orbit really do experience something special.
Please be safe out there. Thank you all!
Humbly,
Outer Orbit
Organizer and beneficiary
Jared Byrd
Organizer
San Francisco, CA
Elisabeth Kohnke
Beneficiary
