This is a new site that my friend shared with me.
https://supportrestaurants.org/
Some of the LA restaurants participating
Coni Seafood
Barcito
Highland Park & Bowl
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I’m dubious about any scheme that’s essentially an interest-free loan. Money they spend while closed will be lost revenue when they reopen. They need government grants so they don’t go (further) into debt.,
Who knows what places will make it through this mess even with some help via gift cards or “bonds”.
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Thanks for the petition link. Looks like they’re going to make it to 150,000, which is their goal. Not sure that it’ll bring about much action by the government(s), but certainly worth a try. The thing that would bring this to an end would be to allow restaurants to re-open. Most restaurants aren’t nearly as crowded as Costco, and people don’t move around in restaurants, coming into contact with many others. Other places where people mix a lot are grocery stores and schools, for example. But not restaurants.
Mine would not. (The New York Times)
I haven’t seen a local newspaper for decades. Instagram is the place for this. Greater reach.
When they’re full, you can’t stay six feet away from people in most restaurants I go to. And if they cut their capacity in half they’d go out of business.
Only if people suddenly decide to abandon caution and go out to eat. And I doubt they will, at least not soon.
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I’m one of the people who’d be more than willing to “abandon caution” and go out to eat. And I’m in that “high risk” group. Damn the torpedo’s. But Robert is right that restaurants can’t long survive if they’re only half-full. And you may well be right about there not being enough people to fill our restaurants any time soon. Sigh.
There’s another aspect of restaurants being suddenly closed. All of those people who were dining in them and aren’t interested in carry-out have to eat at home. Meaning they have to buy groceries, which exacerbates the shortages at markets.
There’s no real shortage. There’s a temporary shortage of some items in some places because of (understandable) panic buying. And lots of restaurants are offering takeout and delivery, so if you don’t want to buy groceries, you still don’t have to.
I hope you’ll excuse my language when I say boo-fucking-hoo.
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The two places I went to at prime dinner hours last Friday and Saturday, before Newsom’s speech and the health department orders, when people were free to go wherever they wanted, were less than 25% full. Some of the other usually-busy places I walked by were even emptier. The public was ahead of the politicians on this one.
Groceries and their suppliers are perfectly capable of handling larger-than-usual demand. They do it every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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It’s sounding more and more like when the mushroom cloud disperses and people finally emerge from their bomb shelters, there will be few remaining restaurants to be found in the scorched landscape.
I signed the petition and hope others here will too.
Governor Newsom issued a statewide order.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Coronavirus-Atria-Burlingame-nursing-home-SF-15142764.php
Per the Chronicle the language is identical to the ones in place in SF Bay Area counties, which limit restaurants to takeout and delivery only.
http://acphd.org/media/559658/health-officer-order-shelter-in-place-20200316.pdf
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@robert Thanks for the Change petition link!
While there are now extensions for federal and California state income tax deadlines pushing it beyond April 15th, I wonder if Los Angeles County will consider an extension of the property tax deadline on April 10th and the supplemental property tax deadline on May 31st?
Some chefs, restaurant owners and staff are property owners as well and should receive some assistance in this regard.
My guess is the county bureaucrats will probably be too greedy about filing their coffers. 
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There was an LA County/City press conference preceding the Governor; someone asked about that and the Supervisor (Barger, maybe?) said there would be an extension, on (I think) a case-by-case basis. They were going to get the details onto the website at some point:
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Excellent
For real. We actually have to debate whether it’s legal to go hiking. Meanwhile, the grocery stores are overcrowded madhouses. Thanks, Governor Newsom.
Don’t they control how many people are in at the same time - some of the shops have been doing it here in Boston
I went shopping yesterday and it was fine.
The public health orders are rational and fact-based. It’s too bad we weren’t better prepared, like South Korea, but there’s nothing to debate about at this point. @Alkiegourmand and @DoctorChow, please take your hysteria to private messages, or maybe the comments sections on Breitbart.
When Trung Nguyen, co-owner of Co Nam, went to a grocery store recently to stock up on staples for his family, he found empty shelves in the wake of coronavirus-inspired panic buying. It got Nguyen wondering, what if his restaurant began offering staples, too?
Like others in the restaurant industry, when the shelter-in-place order was announced, Nguyen was thinking about how to keep his business open by doing more than just offering take-out and delivery. He runs Co Nam, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Temescal district of Oakland, with his wife Vy Lieou; they also own Xyclo, a Vietnamese eatery on Piedmont Avenue. Along with looking for a way to retain and keep paying their employees, the couple wanted a solution that might also better serve the community during this new reality.
Nguyen realized that he could do both with one plan, by having Co Nam sell groceries and even some household items along with its regular menu.
While supermarket shelves can be empty, restaurant distributors still have plenty and sell it at a cheaper cost to restaurants who buy in high volume. So now, along with vermicelli bowls and pho, Co Nam offers eggs, milk, and yes, even toilet paper.
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Thanks, robert. Glad I finished reading this update before replying. For those who are so upset by the governor’s announcement, how has it changed anything? And perhaps it has in SoCal. Weren’t “non-essential” businesses already closed? We basically only go out to the grocery and then home. What were y’all doing before that you can’t do now? Asking sincerely.