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Coronavirus Hong Kong: starved of customers, restaurants close down as financial support from government ‘too little and too late’
- Vegetarian dining pioneer Bobsy Gaia is just one of the business owners forced to make the hard choice of shutting their establishments
- Parko Chan, who has been running trio of restaurants for seven years, says financial support from government did not come soon enough
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When Bobsy Gaia decided to close his third restaurant in Hong Kong’s Central early in January, he was taken to court by his landlord for falling behind on his rent. By that point, the pioneer of vegetarian dining had given up hope on finding a way out of his troubles.
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“I would have stubbornly continued to serve the community, even though we were losing money at an alarming rate,” he said.
Gaia shut down all his restaurants in January after running out of cash as Hong Kong’s latest round of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions took a toll.
“I need some time to recover from the damage,” said Gaia, who has spent more than two decades in the city.
Hong Kong ordered bars to shut in early January and banned dine-in meals after 6pm as part of curbs to stem a surge of infections. Eateries were further restricted to seating only two people at a table on February 24.
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