Jackie:
Now, moving out of state to survive the pandemic. With the New York coronavirus restrictions mounting and driving away customers, one restaurant owner is leaving, moving his business as well, and some of his workers down to Florida. Joining me now is Edward Buddy Foy, Jr., owner of The Chateau Anna Maria. Buddy, it’s great to see you. What was the last straw? Because we’ve heard a lot about residents leaving New York, for example, because of the crime, because of the pandemic, because of the quality of life. But now, businesses are actually saying, “We can’t do business here.”
Buddy Foy, Jr.:
Yeah. Jackie, the last straw was the 10 o’clock shutdown. When you’re dealing with that restriction and that quick of a serve, lights out at 10 o’clock and customers are gone for restaurants in New York. We can’t do the business. We are going to be back in New York when we can open fully. We decided to shut it down for the winter, move to Florida. And more importantly, we were in discussions for the whole year on expanding our restaurant operations because of the TV show we have on The Food Network. And we wanted to expand and take advantage of that coverage in New York, Saratoga and Albany, New York. And we halted those conversations 90 days ago. And we quickly picked up conversations with Florida developers. And literally two weeks ago, we opened up here in Florida. This is where we will expand.
Jackie:
And how do you expect business will go? I mean, it’s not easy to start a business in a new location. Under these circumstances, are you optimistic that the business and the consumers are down there and they’re not as restricted, so if you are open, they will come?
Buddy Foy, Jr.:
Jackie, we opened a week ago. This Friday, we opened. We’ve been open for one week and about four days. So about 11 days we’ve been open. Our restaurant’s been sold to the capacity that we’re operating. We are utilizing what we were successful in New York. 45,000 customer touchpoints. My family owns three restaurants that are within a mile of each other in Bolton Landing, New York. We had over 100,000 touches with customers. Our employees and customers, 100,000 in three restaurants, not a single trace back to our institutions. Why? Because we followed the guidelines. We wore the masks. We kept social distancing. We were cleansy. We are already regulated by agencies, the Liquor Authority, the Health Department. Why don’t you let them penalize whoever? I’m assuming there are a lot of people out there that aren’t following the guidelines. I don’t see it. If they’re making these decisions, they’re seeing something that I don’t see. Otherwise, they’re making irrational decisions.
Jackie:
Well, Buddy.
Buddy Foy, Jr.:
Allow us to operate-
Jackie:
That’s part of the problem, right? That the facts show that restaurants aren’t necessarily the problem here in New York. It’s the fact that the restaurants are closed and people are gathering and congregating in their homes, and that’s how the virus is spreading. And it seems backwards with the respect to the approach. Hopefully, they’re listening. And hopefully, they’ll see an example like yours and think about what to do in the future.
Speaker 3:
So this is going to-
Buddy Foy, Jr.:
Good. In the meantime, we’re going to build our business wherever we can and wherever we’re welcomed.
Jackie:
And that’s the American spirit. Great to see you, Buddy. Thank you so much.
Buddy Foy, Jr.:
Thank you, Jackie.