{"id":50306,"date":"2020-11-20T17:48:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T00:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-restaurant-closes-for-good-because-of-covid-19-financial-hardships\/"},"modified":"2020-11-21T00:48:54","modified_gmt":"2020-11-21T00:48:54","slug":"durango-restaurant-closes-for-good-because-of-covid-19-financial-hardships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-restaurant-closes-for-good-because-of-covid-19-financial-hardships\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango restaurant closes for good because of COVID-19 financial hardships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kassidy\u2019s
Kassidy\u2019s Kitchen staff members serve some of their last customers Thursday at the Bodo Industrial Park diner. The popular breakfast and lunch spot plans to close as a result of financial struggles brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Another longtime Durango restaurant has been forced to permanently close as a result of financial struggles brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Starting Friday, restaurants face a second period where they will not be allowed to offer indoor dining, a result of health officials trying to curb a massive spike in positive cases in La Plata County.<\/p>\n

Kassidy\u2019s Kitchen owner Frances Beck said she looked at her restaurant\u2019s financials, searching for a way to stay afloat. In the end, she had to make the tough call to permanently shutter the diner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very sad and unfortunate thing,\u201d Beck said. \u201cBut we\u2019re just not going to survive off to-go and delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kassidy\u2019s Kitchen, located in Bodo Industrial Park, is a mainstay in Durango for breakfast and lunch comfort food.<\/p>\n

About 10 years ago, Beck\u2019s parents \u2013 Keith and Cheryl Kassidy \u2013 bought what was then a second CJ Diner\u2019s location at 171 Suttle St. and reopened the eatery as Kassidy\u2019s Kitchen. Beck recently took over ownership.<\/p>\n

Beck said it was hard for Kassidy\u2019s Kitchen to survive the first shutdown in March and April, but the restaurant was able to survive off Paycheck Protection Program loans and make it to the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we\u2019d give it another go around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Kassidy&#x2019;s
Kassidy&#x2019;s Kitchen owner Frances Beck, left, and staff members at the Kassidy&#x2019;s Kitchen on Thursday.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Summer numbers were strong, Beck said, but as fall set in, with the weather becoming colder and COVID-19 cases on the rise, business started to visibly slow down.<\/p>\n

Then, San Juan Basin Public Health announced Tuesday that La Plata County would enter the \u201cLevel Red\u201d safer at home public health regulation, which limits restaurants to takeout and delivery only<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move comes at a critical time in the pandemic as cases in La Plata County skyrocket. If nothing is done to slow the virus\u2019 spread, health officials say health care systems could be broken going into winter and the holiday season.<\/p>\n

By prohibiting indoor dining, health officials hope to limit gatherings indoors, where the virus is an estimated 20 times more likely to spread, and also reduce close socialization among people from different households.<\/p>\n

But the regulations come at a price, especially to local restaurants that have endured a two-month shutdown in the spring, and ever since have operated at a reduced capacity.<\/p>\n

Recently, the Colorado Restaurant Association reported that statewide, an estimated 65% of restaurants could close within the next six months<\/a> under current conditions and if no aid is received.<\/p>\n

Beck said Kassidy\u2019s Kitchen tried to come up with new ways to bring money in, but much of the restaurant\u2019s business comes from people who work in Bodo. The majority of those people, she said, are shut down and work from home.<\/p>\n

As news spread about the impending closure on indoor dining, Beck met with her mother and went over the restaurant\u2019s books. Slowly, it became devastatingly clear Kassidy\u2019s Kitchen could not survive another shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor myself, personally, reality hasn\u2019t hit yet,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n

\"Kassidy&#x2019;s
Kassidy&#x2019;s Kitchen in Bodo Park is closing as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Kassidy\u2019s Kitchen employs nine people, and Beck fears for their future. Many of her customers, too, are senior citizens who rely on the restaurant for breakfast or lunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all a part of our own little family,\u201d Beck said. \u201cThey\u2019re all very, very upset. We are very much a local spot. It\u2019s very detrimental to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck said she is going to take the next couple of weeks to figure out her own next steps. She said residents shouldn\u2019t be surprised to see her open a new restaurant sometime in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep an eye out for us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Since the pandemic, several restaurants have closed permanently, at least in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as Eno Cocktail Lounge and Wine Bar, the Palace Restaurant and the Irish Embassy Pub, as well as Pura Vida in Vallecito.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

breakfast and lunch spot can\u2019t survive another shut down<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,11,4259,668,450,686],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-economy-general","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-public-health","tag-restaurant-and-catering","tag-san-juan-basin-health-department"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50306"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}