. The restaurant was supposed to open this summer, but its recent takeout-only debut, in the form of a set menu, is being orchestrated from the Benu kitchen. Lee tells Eater via email that the business is providing healthcare and a meal program to all furloughed employees across his restaurant empire, as well as financial aid to international workers on visas who don’t qualify for unemployment benefits.
New business owners may be excited about big plans for the future, but for now they too must adjust expectations. “There’s a lot of good stuff we want to launch, but we’re waiting for the best timing,” Dien says, though he remains optimistic. “We’ve been waiting for more than a year already, so it’s okay to wait for a little bit more.” In the summer, he hopes Coffeeholic can offer more drinks, like watermelon juice, coconut coffee, and lychee or passion fruit tea.
Litsa argues that new restaurants are particularly flexible to the changing situation. “In a way we’re blessed by having less business because it gives us more time to wrap our heads around what to do next and we can experiment without pissing offpeople,” she says. “By the time we have more business, either because corona has lifted or our economy has morphed, we’ll be really frickin’ good at what we do.