{"id":1318838,"date":"2020-03-17T12:56:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T18:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/?p=475089"},"modified":"2020-03-17T14:43:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T20:43:08","slug":"vail-valley-restaurant-bar-suppliers-feeling-the-pinch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/vail-valley-restaurant-bar-suppliers-feeling-the-pinch\/","title":{"rendered":"Vail Valley restaurant, bar suppliers feeling the pinch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The taproom at Eagle’s Bonfire Brewing Company is now only open from 4 to 7 p.m., and only to pick up beer. The brewery has lost a lot of business from bars and restaurants because of a state-ordered shutdown of those establishments.<\/strong>
\nSpecial to the Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of Patrick Rouaud\u2019s business comes from local hotels and restaurants. Most of his business is gone now.<\/p>\n

Rouaud is the longtime owner of Michele\u2019s Bakery in EagleVail. That business is a wholesale supplier. With restaurants, bars and many hotels now closed for at least the next 30 days due to the state government\u2019s efforts to contain<\/a> the spread of the COVID-19 virus, there isn\u2019t much to do at the bakery right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to take a big hit,\u201d Rouaud said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to see what we can do to outside of selling bread to restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Gypsum, Andrew Osborne is in a similar situation. Osborne is the owner of Eagle Smoked Salmon, and has had his business hit in a couple of ways. Osborne sells most of this product through Whole Foods stores, but also sells a lot of salmon to restaurants in the valley and on Vail and Beaver Creek mountains.<\/p>\n

Broken supply chain<\/h3>\n

Those businesses are now closed, of course, but further complicating Osborne\u2019s operation is the inability to get fish. The fish Eagle Smoked Salmon uses comes from Norway, and is shipped on passenger aircraft. With travel shut down between the U.S. and Europe, that supply line has dried up.<\/p>\n

At first, Osborne tried to route shipments from Norway to London, then the U.S. But with flights stopped from Great Britain, that supply line has also been eliminated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just impossible to get (fish) right now,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n

Bonfire Brewing in Eagle also distributes a lot of its products to area bars and restaurants. Bonfire co-owner Amanda Jessen said Bonfire\u2019s usually-bustling taproom in Eagle is now only open between 4 and 7 p.m., and only for people to pick up six-packs and growlers.<\/p>\n

Bars, restaurants and the taproom are a \u201cvery significant part of our business,\u201d Jessen said.<\/p>\n

Liquore stores remain open, and Jessen said the brewery seems to be moving more beer through those outlets. Still, it\u2019s tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to be creative, and get some revenue through the door,\u201d Jessen said.<\/p>\n

Rouaud also said he\u2019s thinking about ways to sell products from the bakery, although none of those ideas have gone much beyond the thinking stage \u2014 the restaurant closure order just came down late Monday afternoon, after all.<\/p>\n

No one knows whether the current 30-day closure will be extended, or for how long.<\/p>\n

Help is available<\/h3>\n

Until then, business owners and employees are eligible for either unemployment insurance or low-interest loans.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Dylan Roberts, a Democrat who represents Eagle and Routt counties in the Colorado Legislature, Tuesday morning posted a link to the unemployment insurance site on his Facebook page. Roberts Tuesday morning said he\u2019d received 10 or more queries in just a couple of hours. Roberts said both unemployment insurance and Small Business Administration loans do require some paperwork.<\/p>\n

But, he added, unemployment applications aren\u2019t \u201cas challenging as other things. The state is taking steps to expedite the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal loans are a little more involved, Roberts said, adding that the Colorado Office of Economic Development is working to ease access to those resources.<\/p>\n

Everyone hopes this closure doesn\u2019t last long. Jessen said she\u2019s worried that some businesses may not make it if the closure order goes to 60, 90 or 120 days.<\/p>\n

And, she said, Bonfire is getting close to the point of deciding whether or not to cancel the brewery\u2019s annual Bonfire Block Party in June.<\/p>\n

But Jessen said she believes that when the restrictions are lifted and people can eat out and travel again, they\u2019ll do so with gusto.<\/p>\n

Until then, \u201cwe intend to weather the storm the best we can,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Vail Daily Business Editor Scott Miller can be reached at smiller@vaildaily.com<\/a> or 970-748-2930.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The taproom at Eagle’s Bonfire Brewing Company is now only open from 4 to 7 p.m., and only to pick up beer. The brewery has lost a lot of business from bars and restaurants because of a state-ordered shutdown of those establishments. Special to the Daily Most of Patrick Rouaud\u2019s business comes from local hotels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1318838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-01 17:08:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1318842,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318838\/revisions\/1318842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}