ATLANTA — To Emily Chan, running a restaurant is more grease than glamor. Love of food brought Emily and her wife, Jen, together. Their love for each other sparked the idea to open JenChan's restaurant in 2019, and it's that love that keeps them going.
"This is lifting 50-lb. bags of potatoes, changing out the fryer oil, this is getting up at 4 a.m.," Chan said. It’s hard. It’s 80 percent. I think that’s the failure of restaurants. The profit margins, if they exist, take years to happen. And the pandemic just punched all of that away.”
The Chan's endured the pandemic, but feared closure at nearly every turn. Their 20 employees can make about $20 an hour with tips. But the overhead, ingredients and wages can really add up, not to mention the healthcare costs.
"The majority of small, independent restaurants can't afford it," Chan said. "We can't afford health insurance. Our son is not on our health insurance policy. It's a problem."
The Georgia Restaurant Association said profits have gone down industry-wide by about three to four times pre-pandemic levels. Paying for healthcare costs, the organization said, has only gotten more expensive since the pandemic began.
In response, the Chans decided to add a four-percent health insurance surcharge to each customer's check to cover healthcare costs. The idea was inspired by other local restaurants like Little Tart Bakeshop and Ticonderoga Club. JenChan's got blasted on social media this week, with one critic threatening to "make that healthcare come in handy."
"We realized quickly it was very bad from people who hadn't dined at our restaurant, out of state, not even people from Georgia," Chan said. "The people who dine with us, the people who actually know us, the people who've had our food, the local community where we live and work have been tremendously supportive of it."
Thamar Duncan drove over 20 miles from Powder Springs to Atlanta just to visit the restaurant after she saw the negative post on social media denigrating the decision to add the healthcare fee.
“At the end of the day, health insurance is expensive," Duncan said. "Everything we do in life now is expensive. Everything has gone up. Everyone needs help at the end of the day. If I have a little more extra that I can provide, I’m going to make sure I can give it away.”
Chan said any customer can ask to have the health insurance charge removed from their bill, and the restaurant will oblige, no questions asked.
“There’s a misunderstanding about how much a bowl of fried rice actually costs to make compared to what a consumer is willing to pay," Chan said. “Our decision forced people to look at it and forced people to have a conversation about it. I don’t want to use the word political statement, but we’re definitely trying to raise awareness about this.”
All of the feedback serves as a reminder to Chan that love helped open the restaurant, and that same love will keep her and her wife going.
"It's absolutely built from love," Chan said. "You could catch someone on one of the worst days of their life and give them a cup of soup that makes them think everything's going to be OK, and that's pretty awesome. Let’s be a little more gentle to our small businesses. I think that would be the thing. Support hyperlocal.”