By David Pierini staff reporter

The Lowry Cafe, 2207 Lowry Ave. N., and its owner, A.J. Elga, have been “thrown into the middle of the ocean” by Gov. Tim Walz’s latest shutdown order to stop a rapidly spreading COVID-19.

“It’s a big challenge, Elga said on Nov. 20, the final day of dine-in service before a month-long shutdown began. “Are you going to swim or are you going to go under? I’m trying to stay positive. I think we’ll make it. I think.”

Restaurants all over Minnesota have struggled to survive the pandemic mandates all year, trying to stay afloat on providing take-out service, emergency loans and then a return to dine-in service, but at 50 percent capacity.

Owners once again had to layoff staff to cut costs during a shutdown they fear will last longer than 30 days.

Nickson Nyankabaria eats breakfast at the Lowry Cafe the day before a state order shutdown dine-in service at all bars and restaurants because of COVID-19. Photo By David Pierini

But in running a take-out establishment, new costs emerge, including packaging, utensils and delivery services like GrubHub and DoorDash, which takes up to 30 percent each order.

While Elga signed up with four different delivery services, Milda’s Cafe, 1720 Glenwood Ave., in the Harrison neighborhood can’t afford to lose 30 percent off each order, said owner Ayman Abdelsamie.

“The business that comes through the door is not enough,” said Abdelsamie, who closed his dining shortly after Walz’s announcement and switched over to take-out only. “You get 10 or 15 orders a day. That’s like $250 in sales. That’s not enough to pay the cook for his hours.”

Both experienced a slight boom when Walz relaxed restrictions at the beginning of the summer and allowed restaurants to open at half capacity.

But Elga and Abdelsamie paint bleak pictures. They quickly exhausted their emergency loans and saw no other relief money on the horizon. Abdelsamie, with a stack of bills and a cutoff notice on his desk, has tapped into his personal savings and may have to find additional credit cards to survive the shutdown.

“I laid off two people today. Tomorrow it will just be me and the cook,” Abdelsamie said. “I don’t have a choice. What should I do? Close it? If I close it, I won’t open again. This is my baby and the only thing I have so if I close it, mentally I will be done.”

Ayman Abdelsamie, owner of Milda’s Cafe, said he is running out of financial options to survive a prolonged shutdown.

Everyone is struggling, Elga said, and he and Abdelsamie worry the financial strain caused by prolonged pandemic could mean less money for customers to eat out.

“I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen,” Elga said. “I told the chef let's see what happens. We’re going to fight to make it.”

Northside restaurants brace for yet another prolonged shutdown