Episode 32: Firefly Restaurant

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guests: Brad Levy,Owner,Haley Sausner,Chef and Jay Beaman,Manager FireFly restaurant

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host. 

Series Introduction: This episode is part of our series exploring COVID-19’s impact on nonprofits and small businesses in San Francisco. We started the series back in April 2020 during the height of the first phase of the Covid 19 pandemic and the Shelter In Place requirements. Over these past nine months, the Covid-19 pandemic and economic meltdown have wiped out millions of jobs in both the nonprofit and small business sectors as well as shuttered tens of thousands of small business operations.

The goal of the series is to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits, small businesses, and their staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability. The series of interviews we conducted features voices from a cross-section of organizations that make up the fabric of our community.  Each of them brings a unique perspective on how they and we are dealing with the issues facing our community during the global pandemic and economic depression.

Show Guest Jay: To be honest, you need to vote and write your senators, because relief packages need to come down. It doesn't matter how many orders of fried chicken you order or how many t-shirts you buy. If we don't get federal and state and city support, then we're not going to survive. And by we, I mean, all of us. Firefly, you know, we're pretty scrappy. I'm not afraid and we'll do what needs to be done, but this industry needs help. And not just restaurants. I mean, the nightlife, the entertainment industries, these bands, and these clubs and these things that we hold so dear, there were already on their last leg in San Francisco because it's such a challenging place. We're in an existential threat of losing everything that makes this place great

Episode Intro - Show Host George: In this episode, our featured voices are Brad Levy the owner, Haley Sausner the Chef, and Jay Beaman the Manager of Firefly restaurant. Firefly restaurant is another one of our local neighborhood gems known to serve up its beloved fried chicken along with some of the best vegetarian fare in San Francisco. Firefly like all of our restaurants and bars is being devastated by the combination of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the latest City and State requirements to shut down all in-person dining. Thus, forcing restaurant owners like Firefly to try and stay alive by Take Out pick up and delivery alone will probably be the financial death nail to our restaurants.

Show Host George: I'm joined remotely via zoom by Brad Levy, the owner, Haley, Sosner the chef and House Manager, Jay Beeman from Firefly restaurant on 24th street there in Noe Valley. Thanks for being here, Jay Haley and Brad,

I'm gonna start with, Brad and Firefly has been around a long time. Why did you start it? And could you tell the audience a little bit about the focus of your food and beverage and the theme, especially you guys are known for your vegetarian fare? 

Show Guest Brad: Sure. Well, we've been here for 27 years and, opened up 27 years ago, partially because we were so naive to think that we could do whatever we wanted. But that was because we saw there was a need for a kind of restaurant that really catered to the kind of diverse tastes and diverse clientele that, is especially, in San Francisco.

So, we thought that you could have a pork chop and a well thought out vegetarian entree on the same menu. And that wasn't a no, no, there were no rules against those kinds of things. We thought that you could be nice to your employees, that you could really like be gracious and genuine with your customers without going through some sort of act.

And that, that kind of thing would actually make people feel good and they would respond to it.  So, we weren't as good as we are now when we opened. But I think that we had enough time to practice. Kind of still do the same thing, constantly evolve and give people what they want, how they want it without, adhering to too many rules.

George: Thank you. I'm gonna turn it over to Jay for a moment. So, Jay you're in the front of the house doing operations along with everybody else there, how has COVID-19 impacted, Firefly's operations?

Show Guest Jay: We are a totally different restaurant, as far as operations go, like nothing is the same as it used to be not one single thing. As far as how we do it, I think, we have succeeded pretty well at, creating the same spirit and the same level of excitement about our food. But there's so much of what we did was about customer interaction. And about, the way we talk to our guests, the way that we treated our guests, that was about the family.

And so now we're just sort of like putting food in a bag and handing it to somebody. It just takes away so much of what, who we were. So, we have a lot of different ways in which we have to adjust and adapt and try to do that. So, a lot of that's now on the web and in our menu descriptions, then we have a two-page finishing instructions.

That I hope people read it cause it's funny and it's charming and its very Firefly. And we just talk about our love of food and why we're here and what you can do with your food once you get it from us. And so, there’s more challenges for us to show who we are and our personalities, which has always been so important to us, like from the whole staff always was able to show it was about them and who they were table-side. So, having to figure all that out and then some, basic stuff, which I'm sure Haley will talk about. Like some food just doesn't travel. So, we can't make certain things that use to be stars of our house, because it's not going to be good 20 minutes later in a little box. So, a lot of things like that have changed. I'll tell you one crazy thing is that like we take up all the space in the restaurant that used to be filled up by customers with all our stuff. It's amazing how much we can just take up space now that we're given this space, I'm kind of looking forward to someday where we can have guests in the restaurant again, we'll, put everything away where it goes.

George: Thank you, I love the written descriptions. They're always really fun and it has so much of the Firefly personality to it and its great fun to read it before one prepares the food and eats the food. So Haley, how have you and the team responded, to Covid-19 to try and provide the amazing fare that you guys do, in a compostable container these days.

Show Guest Haley:  We've never done to go before. And now we've figured out, you know how to do everything, especially now with the fried chicken, it's monumental that we figured out how to get that going to go. Everyone's been asking for years, and now they have their white meat as well. So that’s been a really positive change for us is, you know, like making people happy that way. But we've all had our moments of breaking down from, you know, the loss of human interaction that we don't get.  

Brad: If I may, the bottom line of a lot of this is that this is all something that none of us signed up for.

Haley: Yeah [laughter]

Brad: And, you know, there's so many sacrifices that people make to be in the restaurant business. And it's not an easy lifestyle the pay payoff has always been the thrill of service and, being tableside and of meeting new people all the time and the challenges of dealing with different people's needs and the rewards of seeing people so well taken care of and happy when they were leaving. And you know, now there's all the work and none of that.

Haley: It’s been really interesting because before you used to make something for somebody, you know, to spend all day cooking, you give them the plate and then you see them after the dinner. It was so good. I loved it. And now it's like, you don't even see the person that it goes to.

You just put it in a box and then, you know, somebody hands it off to them and you hope that they liked it, you know? And it's, so it's like kind of going home day and being like, well, I did the best that I could, but I, you know, I hope it was received as well as I intended.

George: Yeah, it’s gotta be hard, by the way, the whole fried chicken. I mean, amazing. I think it's a really wonderful addition. And now that you guys are becoming experts at take-out could be a whole different revenue stream when we come back on the other side of this, who knows?

Haley: Definitely, the takeout food is probably permanent for most restaurants. We've also all put in so much emotional labor and physical labor into figuring all of it out. So just to be like, Oh, there's a vaccine. We're going back to normal. No more take out. It's like, no, but I put so much thought into it. Like we can still work that out too.

George: Brad you've been around for 27 years, what would you say has been the largest impact, of Firefly on, the local restaurant scene?  The whole Noe Valley has grown up around you and become, a very expensive place to live.

Brad: Yeah, I don't know. I often think about what came first It always seemed like back then a neighborhood that was crying out for some more modern restaurants, there were a lot of sort of institutional legacy type of restaurants here and some that are still surviving, which is amazing.

And, in a lot of ways where youngsters in Noe Valley, when you look at some of the other places. I think a Haystack Pizza and Rin Thai all those places you know, have been mainstays in the neighborhood for a long time. And when we came in and were probably the first people to do something a little more modern, I mean for a long time, there was no one else that was even thinking about doing that in Noe Valley. In the last, maybe five to ten years

I think as the neighborhood has grown up just from being in San Francisco and becoming more of a, known neighborhood and destination and living place in San Francisco. And when we started, this was really the outskirts. We were kind of pioneers in that sense.  There's a lot of neighbors and customers who have been here over the 27 years who have really come to feel like we're part of their community. So that feels good to have been accepted that way.

George: Thank you, love the history. So, Jay, people who are watching, listening to this what can they do dah, to continue to support, unique restaurants like Firefly? Take out?  Gift cards? You guys have a special COVID-19 campaign going to help some of the staff?

Jay: To be honest, you need to vote and write your senators, because relief packages need to come down. It doesn't matter how many orders of fried chicken you order or how many t-shirts you buy. If we don't get federal and state and city support, then we're not going to survive. And by we, I mean, all of us. Firefly, you know, we're pretty scrappy. I'm not afraid and we'll do what needs to be done, but this industry needs help. And not just restaurants. I mean, the nightlife, the entertainment industries, these bands, and these clubs and these things that we hold so dear, there were already on their last leg in San Francisco because it's such a challenging place. We're in an existential threat of losing everything that makes this place great. And so, you're not going to fix it by buying gift certificates to the Rickshaw Stop or to Firefly or to these things that you love.

We need support, and that needs to come from our elected officials. And ultimately that needs to come, you know, from taxing millionaires. But also, you can help, we print some t-shirts, you can buy some t-shirts. We got hot sauce for sale and we got, sauerkraut for sale. We got some pantries, the goods coming down the line so that you can make your own, Firefly, fried chicken at home, and all kinds of things. But really, really, we need to talk to our elected officials, you know, we need the support of our leaders. This is the time when they can show that, being for the people and having support in our government. This is the time.

Brad: We got a PPP loan and I think if it wouldn't have been for that, we wouldn't even be here now. So, we’re able to survive right now, but when we start having to pay full payroll and, we start having to pay full rent, we start having to pay for utilities. Our model now does not necessarily cover that.

We're starting to build an outdoor area. We're not sure what the revenue is going to be, you know, how that's going to be accepted. Even so at our best, we were squeaking by a year after year after year. For 27 years, you know, there's been a dozen times where we weren't sure where we were going to make it through the year and we just happened to squeak through.

So this is, as Jay says, an existential challenge right now.  We're confident that we'll find a way we don't know what it's going to be yet, but it's, it would be great to get help.

George: And you guys are not alone. All the small businesses we've talked to and other restaurants everybody's in that same place.  This is the final question for everyone. We'll start with you. Haley, what would you see are some of the positive things that could come out of the crisis to support local food and beverage operators and workers?

Haley: Really hard question for me because I've already had to grieve, you know, the loss of everything that was, going back to what Brad said about how, I think we could squeak by, you know, really the last, like two years we were really hitting our stride and really doing well. And like we're really finally able to take a breath of fresh air.

And then, COVID happened and everything came to a halting screech, and just went right back to where it was. So, I spent the first part of lock-down kind of grieving what was, and so now, I'm appreciative for, the takeout business that we've grown. And that I think will be a good asset for us to have, you know, moving forward, hopefully indoor dining, or just being able to go out with people in general will come back.

I mean, positives for me are that people are eating less meat and more vegetarian options.  you know, I do really appreciate the people that go above and beyond to, you know, make us feel their love and their warm, you know, whether it's through popping their head in or sending us an email to tell us how great everything was. But there still are, a lot of really terrible people out there who just, you know, come up and honk their horn at us. So, I struggle right now with the positives.

What do you think of the positive?

Brad: We get to meet a lot more than neighbors.

Haley: Yeah. We get to meet all the dogs were making dog treats. And so then now I get to feed all the dogs that come to pick up food with their owners 

Brad: That's one of the positives.

Haley: That's fun,

Brad: as Jay kind of mentioned earlier, we don't really have to like to keep our room clean.

Haley: I have a desk for the first time 

Brad: Kinda nice. We get to play whatever music we want to play as loud as we want to play it during the day. And at night,

Haley: No one tells me too loud.

Jay: There's no dress code anymore. It's pretty great.

Brad: As you can see, we're kind of grasping it.

Jay: There is one thing that I think is a real positive from all this. I think that they're starting to feel like there's a falling away. Of, some of the nonsense laws, regarding alcohol. There's no reason that you shouldn't be able to go up to any bar in the City of San Francisco and order a cocktail and walk down the street with it. There's no reason, except for some puritanical tyrannical ridiculous law.

And so now, I don't even know what's legal or what's not legal anymore. People are just doing whatever they want. And that's good because really the government, the City of San Francisco or the California, ABC does not have any business saying that you can't buy a bottle of beer and walk down the street with it.  And so, all you're doing is hurting the small businesses. I don't know a lot of those kind of like silly, antiquated, puritanical laws I think are kind of gonna disappear forever

Haley: I have a positive, the outdoor dining situation with all the Parklands, like I was in Hayes Valley the other day, and with the streets being closed and all the outdoor dining, you know, being able to walk down the street was pretty magical on a beautiful San Francisco day. You know, even being spaced out of, far away from people, I still kind of felt like I was a part of the city for the first time in a while.

And now with our parklet, it's really nice to have something that's like kind of for the public to share with everybody that's from us. That hopefully will be like a nice, you know, statement piece for the neighborhood. Once we finish it.

George: Well, thank you all for sharing Firefly's work and, really wonderful insights. I know it's hard and struggling. I want to make sure all the listeners and viewers out there have all your contact information website, your social media so they can follow and support Firefly and get engaged with you guys even if it's, doing takeout versus the parklet, at least hopefully people show up and support their local restaurants.

Jay: We feel like really, really, really supported by our neighborhood and by our friends and by our family. It's unbelievable how much outpouring, we have some customers who literally buying one small thing every day. We have a customer who's buying like sometimes, you know, $15, sometimes $50, but every single day he buys something. It'll bring tears to your eyes, you know.

Haley: Yeah. But no matter how much they support us, we still need, you know, a hundred thousand dollars a month. And that's just a squeak by, with no profits. And so, you know, there's no amount of support that can give us that besides the government.

George: And I think that's the great message. That's the message for all the small business and food operators out there. And with the new administration, hopefully that will happen.

Episode Outro - Show Host George: The Covid-19 pandemic and economic downturn have hit our neighborhood restaurants very hard. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association has estimated that Fifty Percent of restaurants will be lost from the pandemic. To find out more about our restaurant industry please listen to episode 11 and our interview with Laurie Thomas the Executive Director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, and to find out more and support Firefly Restaurant go to fire fly sf dot com         

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoy the insights, points of view, and personal stories from the voices of change-makers and their nonprofits and small businesses featured in this series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofits, small businesses and staff members, featured in this series please go to my web site george koster dot com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to the extended versions of these interviews and to listen to the entire series. After listening to these stories we hope that you will consider making a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada, along with Mel, Michael, and Lila at the San Francisco Public Press and KSFP. To listen to our next episode in this series and to our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, please go to george koster dot com. While you are on our website please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. Please subscribe to Voices of the Community on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts. Follow us on twitter @georgekoster and please email us with feedback and show ideas at george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening.

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