Mom-and-pop restaurants should secede from NYC if city doesn't meet their demands

Nation's Restaurant News,  June 11, 2007  by William Liederman

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I have been in the restaurant business since I opened David's Cookies with my brother David Liederman in the 1970s. After that launch, I opened The New York Restaurant School in 1978. Eventually, I sold the school and opened Mickey Mantle's Restaurant, the first theme restaurant in New York City. Then, after running Mantle's for almost 20 years, I opened Burgers and Cupcakes, at 265 W. 23rd St.

I call myself a "mom and pop" restaurateur because I have operated only one unit at any given time in my career. And during that time I have experienced firsthand how New York City can swallow up mom-and-pop restaurants like Pac Man. You only have to look at the "out of business" section in the Zagat guide to appreciate how high the failure rate of restaurants is in this city.

The rents in New York are astronomically high, pushing occupancy costs up to 20 percent of total sales, which is a recipe for disaster. The high rents are not the fault of city officials, but the city should at least attempt to help us deal with them by being a little more restaurant-friendly.

The high rents compounded by real estate tax increases regularly put many of our restaurants out of business. Others close their doors because of a lack of signage, unreasonable fines or useless renovations forced on our restaurants by the city health department.

As a result, I've proposed a Restaurant Bill of Rights that I believe will give our mom-and-pop operators a fighting chance to survive the restaurant jungle that is New York City.

The time has come for all mom-and-pop restaurants to declare our independence from the City of New York, unless this Restaurant Bill of Rights is voted into law by the city council:

* All health inspections will be made by appointment only.

* Health department fines will be limited to $100 per violation. Fines will be adjusted based on the number of seats in each of our restaurants.

* The health department will not close down our restaurants unless the conditions cited are health- and life-threatening.

* The City of New York will no longer have the authority to regulate the ingredients in our recipes.

* The smoking ban will be changed to allow for smoking restaurants and nonsmoking restaurants.

* Regulations on outdoor cafes and restaurant signage will be rewritten to encourage new business for restaurants and the city.

* At least 2 percent of the 8.25-percent sales tax will be retained by our restaurants for advertising and promotion, generating more sales for us and more sales tax for the city.

* All restaurant permits, including health, fire, revolving door, open flame, dumbwaiter, outdoor cafe, ice cream scoop, wild game and many others, will be handled by one city employee who will be assigned to our restaurants.

* All of the restaurants in good standing with the city will receive a 50-percent discount on our Con Edison bills.

* No Con Edison deposits will exceed $500.

* Property tax increases incurred by the landlord can no longer be passed on to restaurants.

* Our garbage will be picked up every day by the city for free.

* Our restaurants will receive tax credits for buying all of our groceries in the five boroughs of New York City.

* Many of our best employees, who are illegal immigrants, will be provided with work visas.

* The city will designate every Monday as a no-sales tax day to encourage customers to dine on our worst night of the week.

* The city will provide health insurance for all of our employees.

If this Restaurant Bill of Rights is not passed by the City Council, our mom-and-pop restaurants will no longer be able to afford doing business in New York City and will flee to more restaurant-friendly municipalities.

When we leave, our spaces will be taken by national restaurant chains with deep enough pockets to use their New York City locations as loss leaders.

Then, once the dust settles, New York City will go from being arguably the greatest restaurant town in the world to the world's largest shopping and dining mall.

It's up to you, New York City: Do we stay or do we go?

William Liederman has been involved in the New York dining scene since the 1970s. He currently owns and operates Burgers and Cupcakes, a mom-and-pop restaurant on West 23rd Street.

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