A lot of lost revenue would be made up, and it would give people the funding to pay their staff, to pay their utilities, to pay all their expenses and keep growing. The RESTAURANTS Act would better help people out-it’s essentially a grant where restaurants are given enough money to get them through this pandemic. When the Paycheck Protection Program came out, people were hesitant because it’s still a loan that you have to pay back. People ended up losing everything because they were trying to keep their staff and keep their families afloat, which is just not possible without funding. The thing is, we don’t have a large enough population in New Orleans to support all of these restaurants without the balance of both locals and tourists. The local New Orleans community really helped in any way they could. When a lot of restaurants closed with the mandated shutdown, locals were buying gift cards, buying large to-go orders, and posting on social media to support restaurants. I thought we were going to have a handle on the pandemic and would be back on track in no time. This being America, a powerful first-world country, we really thought we would reopen the restaurant in a month. People think having a business is so glamorous, but it’s very stressful when you have to tell over a hundred people that you don’t have a job for them.ĭespite it all, the mentality was optimistic at the time. My husband had to be the one to tell the staff because I couldn’t even speak, I was just so emotional. These people had been with me for a long time.
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We called a full staff meeting and decided we had to close, which was very hard for me. Hand sanitizer was sold out, to-go boxes were sold out, everybody was just scrambling. We had just come off of Mardi Gras and one of the busiest times in New Orleans. The following day, it was announced restaurants were to be strictly take-out or delivery. That Sunday, we had a curfew where everybody had to be out of the restaurant by 9 p.m. We were just trying to do our thing and cook the best food we can, but it wasn’t enough. when Governor John Bel Edwards would hold a daily press conference and announce new restrictions.
We only had a couple of cases at that time-maybe four or five-but during that week it started to spike quickly in Louisiana. In New Orleans, we were in the height of spring season-we had just finished Mardi Gras-and had all of these upcoming things booked. Things started to escalate, cases were rising, and we saw restaurants in Chicago and New York start to shut down. I thought it would be like SARS, where it stayed on the other side of the globe. When I started seeing the coronavirus spread from Asia to Europe, I never thought it would impact the entire world. I knew I’d have to close the restaurant the next day. That night I could see the writing on the wall. I’m so used to being in charge and calling the shots, but the staff were asking me all these questions, and I didn’t know what to say. I was looking at my staff and, for the first time ever in my career, I felt like a deer caught in headlights. The restaurant was buzzing, everyone was happy, everyone was congratulatory-but I had a pit in my stomach the entire time. I remember my best friend came to town to celebrate, and we all went to dinner at Bywater. It was the second anniversary of Bywater American Bistro, which should have been a happy day. The decision to close my restaurants dawned on me March 15th. That’s always been the mentality, that we are untouchable. After months of being closed, Compère Lapin reopened in November 2020.Īs chefs, we often think restaurants will be around forever because everybody has to eat.
Compton currently lives in New Orleans where she oversees her two highly acclaimed restaurants, Compère Lapin and Bywater American Bistro. Nina Compton is a James Beard award-winning chef and former Top Chef contestant, originally from St.
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