About a year into the pandemic, more than a-third of California’s restaurants had permanently closed and two-thirds of employees at were at least temporarily out of work. Locally, Margarita’s Mexican Restaurant in Grass Valley managed to survive. But owner Trevor Michael, speaking recently on KNCO’s “On the Town”, wasn’t sure what was going to happen, when statewide shutdowns began on March 16th of 2020. He said it was a shock to the system…

click to listen to Trevor Michael

Michael said he then had the terrible experience of trying to explain the unprecedented situation to his employees, many of whom have been working at Margarita’s for decades, and that they had to be laid off. And suddenly only takeout orders could be offered…

click to listen to Trevor Michael

But Michael said eventually customers came back, after also adjusting to the sudden change. Few business owners were more battered than the dining industry. Before the pandemic, there were more than 76-thousand eating and drinking establishments employing around one-point-eight million people, according to the California Restaurant Association.