B
efore the pandemic, you couldn't walk into
Padoca, a Brazilian bakery on Manhattan's
Upper East Side, without waiting in line.
The bakery had a steady flow of customers on any
given day, the tables were often filled with laptops
and couples chatting over coffee. Its location, on
First Avenue and East 68th Street, was central for
nearby institutions like New York-Presbyterian/
Weill Cornell Medical Center, Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University,
and a few New York City public schools. The pan
de queso cheese breads, dubbed PDQs, maintained
quite the cult status among the children at the
playground across the street and the administrative
staff from the world-class healthcare institution
next door.
That all changed with the outbreak of COVID-
19 in early 2020. By July, owner Marina Halpern,
who hails from Brazil, shut down Padoca's brick-
and-mortar location and gave up her lease. She
was not alone. More than 1,000 restaurants in New
York City have permanently closed since the state-
mandated lockdown in March of 2020, and the
National Restaurant Association declared that 17
percent of U.S. restaurants shut their doors in 2020.
The average age of those restaurants? Sixteen years
in business.
Additional Hurdles
The restaurant industry is notoriously hard work,
but it's been even more challenging for immigrant
restaurant owners who often face additional
hurdles. The Federal Reserve Bank of New
Many foodservice establishments have been
disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
Immigrant-Owned
Restaurants Face Additional
Struggles Amid the Pandemic
BY STEPHANIE CAIN
SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM
FOODSERVICE HARDSHIP
