An open letter to my valued employees, customers and friends of The Patio Restaurant:
To my despair and heartfelt disappointment, The Patio Restaurant closed its doors Tuesday night. Many things have overwhelmed me during the past few days. The outpouring of sympathy and affection by countless people who loved both the Patio and me is something I will never forget. I would never have simply closed the Patio without a compelling reason. What follows is the unfortunate series of events that resulted in the closure.
Over the past two and one half years, sales at The Patio have declined steadily as the economy continued to squeeze our core customer base of middle to upper middle class customers. It became increasingly difficult to make our business work. To save The Patio, I borrowed against the equity in my home to make payroll and pay the operating expenses. By December 2006, having exhausted my credit line, I called the Sextons and told them that, for the first time in over 20 years, I could not make the scheduled rent payments. JB Egan, Ralph Sexton’s Secretary Treasurer said, ‘whatever it takes’ to keep the business open. Throughout 2007, sales continued to decline as costs escalated dramatically caused, in part, by the huge hike in gas prices. I increased the credit line on my house to borrow more funds, spent that on payroll and suppliers, and fell further behind to the Sexton family.
Throughout our 24-year relationship, Ralph & JB have been fair and honorable men. From time to time, I would see them in the Patio and thank them for their confidence. They’d reply ‘do what you can’, ‘whatever it takes’. By the end of 2007, we were seven months behind in rent. I received a letter from JB advising of an annual meeting of the Sexton family in early 2008, and that the younger generation was becoming increasingly involved in the family businesses, and may not be as forgiving as Ralph. I wrote JB and told him I was doing all I could to both satisfy the Sextons and increase continually falling sales. On Friday, April 4 2008, I was asked to meet Hilary Kioska, who would be taking the helm of the family businesses as Ralph stepped aside. She told me that, although we had had a great relationship as tenant and landlord over the past 24 years, if the arrears were not satisfied in ten days, I would be evicted. I received a certified letter to that effect April 7th and realized that the only way to rectify this situation in 10 days was to try to sell the business. I spoke to another local restaurateur who expressed interest and met with me on April 11th. He felt the rent was a bit high, but that he would get back to me within ten days.
I called the Sextons, told of the buyer’s interest, and asked for a meeting with Ralph and JB on Monday the 14th. Hilary called Monday before the meeting to say she would not extend the April 17th deadline without a partial rent payment and that she and the Sexton family had been told by their attorney not to speak to anyone about addressing the Patio rent. I took a check for the mutually agreed upon funds to their office the following day. I saw Ralph entering the building. Ralph and I spoke about the prospective buyer’s rental concerns and came up with a plan that was similar to other local rents and that we both believed would be palatable to the buyer.
I received a second certified letter from the Hilary’s attorney stating that we now had until Friday the 25th. I called the buyer, told him of the rental discussion and was told that he would have a proposal by Monday the 28th. I called Ralph, told him of the buyer’s forthcoming offer, and asked if our 24 years relationship was enough to extend the deadline from Friday to Monday. Ralph agreed.
Monday afternoon the buyer dropped off a proposal. It identified a closing in August; that was not soon enough as I would be required to sustain operations until then and I no longer had the resources to do so. Hillary called Monday afternoon to ask how it had gone with the buyer. I explained that we couldn’t survive with that deal until late August, but that I had another interested party, referred by my accountant. I asked for the opportunity to explore this. Hillary said that was unacceptable and that a third certified letter would go out the same afternoon.
Now, I found myself out of options with the sudden demand of the new leader of the Sexton fortune and the failing economy. On Monday the 28th I had enough cash to pay all payrolls and taxes. With a heavy heart, I locked the doors for the last time on Tuesday night April 29th 2008. I tried everything I could do to save the Patio, including exhausting my life’s savings, the equity in my home, and borrowing from every other resource I had available. People will tell you to keep your emotions out of your business decisions. It’s good advice, but the Patio was invaluable to me and saving it was the only choice for me. Further, until this time, I had the support of the landlord who I believed has the same deep conviction that the restaurant was worth saving.
For 24 years I had the pleasure of working side-by-side with an amazing and wonderful group of employees. It was a sincere honor to interact with customers and vendors who, collectively with the employees, became my family. It was my privilege to share your birthdays, anniversaries and other special moments. Although it ended abruptly and sadly, you gave me irreplaceable memories. Frank Sinatra expressed my feelings when he sang “they can’t take that away from me”. Thank you, one and all, for everything.
Tom Beaver
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