reopens its D.C. restaurant Wednesday, 15 months after closing at the onset of the pandemic.
The Penn Quarter outpost of New York City鈥檚 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚, known for its family-style platters piled high with Southern Italian meatballs, pasta, and other dishes, closed completely in March 2020.
The 20,000-square-foot restaurant, at 425 7th Street NW near Capital One Arena, seats 750 and has nine private dining rooms with private spaces that can accommodate up to 400 guests, making it the largest restaurant in D.C. It is also one of the top-billing restaurants in D.C. for sales.
Unlike many other restaurants in the D.C. area, 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 chose not be be open for business with capacity restrictions last year, mostly because of its Penn Quarter location, and because of its sheer size.
鈥淭he museums weren鈥檛 open, the hotel occupancies were extremely low. For us to bring back 150 (employees) with the cost for labor and all that to serve maybe 100 people or 200 people a night wouldn鈥檛 have made sense. It would have put us out of business,” said CEO Jeff Bank, who co-owns the 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 restaurants with Alice Cutler, the widow of 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 founder Artie Cutler.
鈥淎lso remember, the city was at 25% occupancy, and then it swapped on a dime. For us to hire, retrain and get everything back to going, we can鈥檛 just open the next day. It does take time to open a 20,000-square-foot restaurant with 750 seats. It doesn鈥檛 happen in a moment,鈥� Bank said.
When the pandemic hit, 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 laid off a total of 1,300 employees, including 150 at its D.C. location. About 70% of employees now restaffed at the Penn Quarter restaurant are original employees that have returned.
On a typical day, 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 in D.C. serves anywhere from 1,200 to 2,800 people. So how do you prepare to reopen such a large restaurant?
鈥淲e鈥檝e been here for about two weeks. We鈥檝e been doing cooking and prepping and practicing, and doing roll play with the waiters. Everybody has been dusting off and getting ready,鈥� Bank said.
The original 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 opened in Manhattan鈥檚 Upper West Side in 1990. There are now two 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 in New York City, including the still-closed Times Square location — the in the U.S. in 2019. 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 also has outposts in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and the Bahamas.
颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 opened its D.C. location in 2010.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great mixture of business, locals and tourists and that鈥檚 what we need. 颁补谤尘颈苍别鈥檚 is a high-volume restaurant. It鈥檚 reasonably priced, but we serve a lot of people. D.C. strikes the right mix. We have to be in a high-volume location,鈥� Bank said.
With such a large staff at its restaurants, many of them servers, Bank also weighed in on the ongoing debate about eliminating server gratuities, and raising wages for waiters and waitresses, and raising menu prices to cover higher labor costs. He favors customer tipping.
鈥淲aiters can get a chance to make a lot of money. Some of our waiters can make anywhere from $60,000 to $85,000 a year. If they were making $20 or $25 an hour without tips, they wouldn鈥檛 be making that kind of money. Tips allow people to make a very good living in a flexible shift atmosphere, some of them working less than 40 hours are making that kind of money. I think the tipping model works very well,鈥� Bank said.
