Save the Kim Family Restaurant
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I am the proud daughter of two Korean immigrant, small-business owners. Since I was in the 6th grade, I grew up in my parents’ small sushi restaurant and have seen them work so hard to provide for our family. For 20 years, we have been open 6 days a week and my parents still work 12-14 hour days. They take exactly one vacation every year for 3 days maximum. As my parents age, the physical labor of running a restaurant has started to take its toll. And as much as I would love to say it’s out of pure joy, the realistic answer is that they have to because as many low income families have experienced, retirement isn’t financially in the cards for them.
A few years ago, my parents downsized to a smaller restaurant that they could still run at their age. They used the small amount of money from selling the previous restaurant, and I contributed all of my savings from 5 years of being a teacher, to make it happen. It was the least that I could do for the two people who have supported me through everything. Even though the restaurant industry is unpredictable for small mom & pop shops, we were doing okay.
Then COVID happened.
Our sales volume dropped dramatically since the vast majority of our business depended on dine-in customers. We literally couldn’t afford the rent on our restaurant. Meanwhile, we received the first visit from our landlord. He simply stated that despite the ongoing pandemic, he expected his tenants to pay full rent. Our county halted commercial evictions so we knew we were temporarily safe, but we scrambled to figure out how we would survive going forward.
As we added delivery apps for the first time and customers started to come back, we regained some of our footing. After a few months, we are just now barely making enough to send at least a portion of our rent payments again. Along with these past few payments, we’ve sent a letter to our landlord each month. We explained that we don’t have any savings to immediately pay back what we owe. We asked if we could have any help at all, whether that be rent forgiveness or rent reduction; we also asked to set up a payment plan so that we could start making up for our debt.
His response? Silence. Our letters were ignored. Every month we got the next bill with our new debt total. Last month, the bill included a big red stamp that emphasized that we were late on our payments.
Silence until today that is.
The landlord showed up in person to the restaurant unannounced. He claimed he had no way of communicating with us, hence the zero responses to our letters. He said he needs the money now. And if we don’t have the money from the months that COVID affected our business, we may as well hand over our keys. He threw us a bone and said any final negotiations can be done from only the comfort of his air conditioned office on Thursday, meaning we need to close the restaurant and drive two hours to accommodate him.
As much as we’ve seen so much kindness from many parts of our community over the last few months and as much as I understand that even landlords have financial obligations, I have no social media appropriate words for this man. His unwillingness to communicate, not even to set up a payment plan, was disappointing. But to show up after months of the silent treatment to use old-fashioned intimidation tactics is reprehensible and unforgivable. One restaurant in our plaza has already closed its doors permanently, one of 2000 restaurants that have already closed in CA. We already had feared the worst, whether that be an eviction or a refusal to renew our lease, which unfortunately is up for renewal in a few months. And now that fear is playing out in real time. The stress and anxiety of my hardworking parents, who don’t know if they’ll still have their only source of income even this time next week, hurts me to my core.
I am not one to often talk about my family’s financial struggles or one who feels comfortable in the slightest to ask you, my friends, for help…I thought that if we could just hold off until November when I start work, everything would be okay and I could support my parents like I always have. But now we don’t have that time and I know that my parents are depending on me. This is something in my power to do for them. So if you are able, I would be inexpressibly and eternally grateful if you could donate to my family’s GoFundMe and help save my parents’ restaurant.
<3
A few years ago, my parents downsized to a smaller restaurant that they could still run at their age. They used the small amount of money from selling the previous restaurant, and I contributed all of my savings from 5 years of being a teacher, to make it happen. It was the least that I could do for the two people who have supported me through everything. Even though the restaurant industry is unpredictable for small mom & pop shops, we were doing okay.
Then COVID happened.
Our sales volume dropped dramatically since the vast majority of our business depended on dine-in customers. We literally couldn’t afford the rent on our restaurant. Meanwhile, we received the first visit from our landlord. He simply stated that despite the ongoing pandemic, he expected his tenants to pay full rent. Our county halted commercial evictions so we knew we were temporarily safe, but we scrambled to figure out how we would survive going forward.
As we added delivery apps for the first time and customers started to come back, we regained some of our footing. After a few months, we are just now barely making enough to send at least a portion of our rent payments again. Along with these past few payments, we’ve sent a letter to our landlord each month. We explained that we don’t have any savings to immediately pay back what we owe. We asked if we could have any help at all, whether that be rent forgiveness or rent reduction; we also asked to set up a payment plan so that we could start making up for our debt.
His response? Silence. Our letters were ignored. Every month we got the next bill with our new debt total. Last month, the bill included a big red stamp that emphasized that we were late on our payments.
Silence until today that is.
The landlord showed up in person to the restaurant unannounced. He claimed he had no way of communicating with us, hence the zero responses to our letters. He said he needs the money now. And if we don’t have the money from the months that COVID affected our business, we may as well hand over our keys. He threw us a bone and said any final negotiations can be done from only the comfort of his air conditioned office on Thursday, meaning we need to close the restaurant and drive two hours to accommodate him.
As much as we’ve seen so much kindness from many parts of our community over the last few months and as much as I understand that even landlords have financial obligations, I have no social media appropriate words for this man. His unwillingness to communicate, not even to set up a payment plan, was disappointing. But to show up after months of the silent treatment to use old-fashioned intimidation tactics is reprehensible and unforgivable. One restaurant in our plaza has already closed its doors permanently, one of 2000 restaurants that have already closed in CA. We already had feared the worst, whether that be an eviction or a refusal to renew our lease, which unfortunately is up for renewal in a few months. And now that fear is playing out in real time. The stress and anxiety of my hardworking parents, who don’t know if they’ll still have their only source of income even this time next week, hurts me to my core.
I am not one to often talk about my family’s financial struggles or one who feels comfortable in the slightest to ask you, my friends, for help…I thought that if we could just hold off until November when I start work, everything would be okay and I could support my parents like I always have. But now we don’t have that time and I know that my parents are depending on me. This is something in my power to do for them. So if you are able, I would be inexpressibly and eternally grateful if you could donate to my family’s GoFundMe and help save my parents’ restaurant.
<3
Give $50 to help get this fundraiser to its goal
Organizer
Jennifer Kim
Organizer
Redlands, CA
