Plan to save restaurants uses CARES Act money to pay up to 30% of your tab. Details here

Editor’s Note 10/13/2020: This post has been updated to reflect the dates of the discount program and the application deadline.

Restaurants across Pierce County have cited amorphous rules as a key hurdle in getting back to the one thing they need most to survive: diners in seats.

A new Pierce County program wants to change that by giving diners a discount.

“Our goal is basically to fill empty tables,” said County Council vice chair Dave Morell, who co-sponsored the emergency measure with council member Marty Campbell.

It also aims at restoring the beating heart of a strong economy: consumer confidence.

The Pierce County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the $7.5 million COVID-19 Restaurant Industry Support ordinance (2020-105), funded through the CARES Act. The program — perhaps the first of its coronavirus kind in the United States — intends to save jobs and stimulate the local economy by supporting one of Washington state’s biggest industries, which has lost 48,000 jobs due to COVID-19, according to the Washington Hospitality Association.

The announcement coincided with Gov. Jay Inslee’s loosening of restictions for bar seating and alcohol service at bars and restaurants.

Over 10 days in November (Nov. 8-19 excluding both Fridays and Saturdays), full-service restaurants across the county — those in operation prior to March 23, 2020 — will offer diners a discount of 30 percent of the total bill, excluding alcohol and before tax. Businesses must apply by October 23 to participate, but the assumption is that guests will automatically receive the discount when they sit down.

Guests can live anywhere. In fact, the program wants to rope in residents from neighboring King, Thurston, Kitsap and Yakima counties.

“It’s all about preserving local jobs,” Morell told The News Tribune on Wednesday. “We want to push it out not just to the Lobster Shops and the El Gauchos, the larger restaurants. We want everybody to participate in this.”

Of the approximately 500 full-service restaurants across the county, Morell hopes to net at least 200, but preferably 300.

Participating restaurants will receive a minimum of $5,000 and a maximum of $90,000 reimbursement from the county. That cap was put in place to ensure small-tab restaurants received a fair slice of the pie when up against more expensive destinations.

To that point, the council has budgeted $100,000 to market the promotion to restaurants from “minority and underrepresented populations,” with help from the economic development department. Other partners include the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, Travel Tacoma and the Washington Hospitality Association.

INSPIRED BY BRITAIN’S ‘EAT OUT TO HELP OUT’

The discount scheme is not unique to Pierce County, though it is the first time the county has “rolled out a program which is unique to the area,” said Morell.

The United Kingdom pioneered such a COVID-era enticement at mass scale through all of August, reimbursing restaurants for 50 percent of food and nonalcoholic drinks. The “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme worked — to the tune of more than £500 million ($646 million). That number was considered by some to be minor compared to the billions the nation has spent on coronavirus relief.

Morell was inspired by the U.K.’s program, which differed in that it only reimbursed sales on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It was a nationwide effort, ultimately enrolling 84,700 restaurants and doling out more than 100 million meals. Unlike in the U.S., the U.K. provides a federal furlough system that pays businesses to keep employees with less red-tape than America’s Paycheck Protection Program or existing unemployment insurance.

More than 530,000 Washingtonians claimed unemployment in the last week of September, according to the Employment Security Department. Pierce County’s unemployment rate hovered above 10 percent in August, the latest month with full data.

Morell doesn’t see the discrepancy of disposable income as an issue for the local program’s success.

“It becomes more to some people, as they may not be able to go out as much, but I still think they can reward themselves and be able to afford it,” he said, adding that a $15 meal at a neighborhood restaurant could drop to $10.

Chain or corporate-owned restaurants are permitted to apply, but they must be considered full-service per the NAICS. That definition generally includes any food business where guests order while seated and pay after eating and excludes buffets, cafeterias, nightclubs and specialty snack shops that serve specific items like ice cream or cookies.

That means that limited-service restaurants, which includes fast-food and counter-service operations like McDonald’s or a taqueria, are not eligible.

The council debated the topic at Tuesday’s meeting. Campbell said he hoped they could find a way to incorporate “nontraditional restaurants” and encouraged a “liberal interpretation” of what a restaurant could be.

“I think in the end all the businesses need to have the opportunity to this lifeline to survive,” he said.

According to data from Crunchtime, a food data aggregator, fast-food has not been affected nearly as dramatically as full-service restaurants, where sales still hover around half of pre-pandemic levels. Recently, quick-service returned to 97 percent of normal sales volumes, with fast-casual not far behind at 90 percent.

PIERCE COUNTY RESTAURANT DISCOUNT

A few Tacoma restaurant owners joined the council meeting to share their appreciation. They included Russ Heaton of Doyle’s Public House, Jackie Farrelli of Farrelli’s Pizza and Katie Driscoll of Boathouse 19 and The Lobster Shop.

Driscoll said she hopes the incentive achieves more than just a two-week boost.

“I hope it does make a permanent change, not just a quick handout, but also provides a change in people’s dining-out habits, so people will be more likely to go out and it will start an upward trend for us,” she said during the virtual meeting.

It also provides an opportunity for the industry to highlight their attention to safety precautions for guests and employees, Farrelli said.

The county economic development department will oversee the application and reimbursement process. Council spokesperson Brynn Grimley said the county expects the $7.5 million to suffice.

Participating restaurants will be reimbursed through two checks, according to Betty Capestany, director of economic development for Pierce County, verified through receipts generated through point-of-sale systems that track each sale.

Those and other details of the program’s efficacy were vetted with local industry leaders.

“They wanted to make sure it was fair to the county and that it was consistent across the board, to address different meal price points,” she said.

Like the U.K. program, Morell said the Pierce County version has two goals: boost restaurant revenue and restore consumer confidence. People flocked to British pubs, but the increased traffic might have been short-lived and could have contributed to a rise in coronavirus cases.

Still, Morell believes the idea has legs, and that Pierce County is up for the challenge.

“Helping out those local community restaurants is really important, and that’s what we’re trying to do is just preserve those businesses and those employees,” he said.

There may be a cap on funds, but there will be no limits on how many times you, the customer, can take advantage of the discounts.

Restaurants must have opened prior to March 23, 2020 to be eligible. Apply by Oct. 23 at piercecountywa.gov/restaurantrally.

PIERCE COUNTY RESTAURANT RALLY

▪ When: Nov. 8-12 and 15-19 (not applicable on Fridays or Saturdays)

▪ What: Receive 30% off your meal at participating restaurants

This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 12:10 PM.