To like To countless others in the food and beverage industry, Jonathan Fine has seen a great deal of turmoil since the pandemic broke out.
The Las Vegas bar owner was forced to close his tavernas last year, faced eviction threats from landlords, tossed hundreds of kegs of beer and reopened multiple locations with the help of a federal aid program.
Today, Southern Nevada’s economy is still recovering from the ravages of the pandemic, and Fine is opening up more places for people to eat and drink.
The 44-year-old founder of Fine Entertainment, whose holdings include Pkwy Tavern, ameriCAN, Rockhouse and PBR Rock Bar, opened the fifth Pkwy Tavern location near the M Resort this month and plans to open the sixth in the Spring area Valley in late September.
The latter is located in Ricardo’s former home, a decade-old Mexican restaurant that closed after the pandemic broke out.
Fine comes from a family of prominent local business people. His father, real estate developer Mark Fine, helped found the Summerlin and Green Valley master plan communities, and his brother Jeffrey Fine owns a portfolio of dining options, including the area’s Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf locations.
Also, his uncle Brian Greenspun owns the Las Vegas Sun and his father-in-law Kenny Epstein owns the downtown El Cortez hotel-casino.
Fine sat down with the Review Journal in early August to talk about his business, the pandemic, and how Las Vegas has recovered from crisis, including the October 1, 2017 mass shootings at the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival that he and his wife did fled after an armed man opened fire on the audience.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you talk about the impact COVID is having on your business?
If I take someone to a job and they interact with people, is they safe? That was my biggest fear. The mask mandate was lifted prior to this new wave of COVID, but we did not allow our employees to remove their masks. I don’t know who is right, I don’t want to get political, but it’s pretty easy for my co-workers to wear a mask during their shift, much like a nurse or a doctor. I think this will make the customer feel safer.
Have You Received Paycheck Protection Loans?
We made; it was a lifeline. There have been some locations where the landlords have worked with us, some locations where the landlords have not worked with us. Without the PPP, I would not have been able to open around half of our locations.
If we close for three days, that’s one thing. We close for a month and all of your dairy products, all of your vegetables and fruits, all go bad. You shut up for two months, all of your meat, even if we can freeze it, which we don’t, all of this will go bad. At my company, we had about $ 3.5 million in short-term debt on the day it closed. We’re still paying it off.
We sat down with all the staff from every single bar and said, “We believe the government will shut everything down. If I’m wrong, we’ll be open in 48 hours. If I’m right, you’ll be the first to line up for unemployment, and anyone who needs food or has a family will take what they can. ”We almost liked a market where we just got the fruit and that Giving away vegetables to the staff. I would say very little food was wasted. Much beer was wasted; a lot of beer was wasted.
Can you estimate how much you had to toss or pour down the drain?
I would say probably in the range of 500 kegs of beer. Some of my liquor sellers said, “Pay us.” Some of them gave us discounts. Nobody has given up everything. Everyone gave us payment plans.
Have you had an eviction at one of your locations?
I would say 70 percent of my landlords are threatened with eviction.
What was your answer to that?
I didn’t know if we were going to lose our home or if we would come out stronger when we started. I have a 2 year old who is now an adult during the pandemic. I woke up early every morning. I made her breakfast; We swam, we played, we had picnics where we could see horses. I tried not to lose hair, I tried to have as little stress as possible. I knew we could economically reopen at least two of the places, maybe three or four. And then when the PPP came out, it was the lifeline that allowed us to open it all up.
They have locations on and off the strip. How has the food and beverage industry recovered on the Strip versus the residential areas in the valley?
There was no one around on the strip when we reopened. It was a ghost town. Then in 2021, starting around March Madness, there were months when revenues were significantly higher than before the pandemic. We filled hotel rooms, but not everything was open. When things reopened we see tourism is back but it’s not where it was anymore so our numbers have fallen back below pre-pandemic numbers.
Off the Strip, we haven’t hit pre-pandemic numbers. We’re fine, but local places are not reaching the numbers they had before the pandemic.
Why do you think this is?
We are a brand that takes the pub back in its history, a public meeting place, a meeting place. We want people to socialize, play games, meet. Before the pandemic, we had parties where you sat and talked to a stranger. It was a very social, interactive place. We did not succeed in any of this.
Those big group events, those big parties, they didn’t come back?
There is no need for her to come back. People can’t bowl, they can’t play darts.
The games where you touch things and people share little things that haven’t made it back to your bars?
Right. When the mask mandate came back, we went back to all of these restrictions. This is how we deal with it; I’m not sure this is the real law.
How many employees did you have before the pandemic and how many do you have now? I think maybe it’s a little higher now because you’re opening a couple of locations.
I think we’re back in the 580-ish range. We were just under 700 before the pandemic. And we have problems getting people back, we have problems occupying the kitchens, finding people in front of the house.
We are very fortunate to emerge from it. I am very happy, amazed, shocked that I was at the place we were 18 months ago and to be able to open a place is proof of how resilient Las Vegas is, how resilient the people who are here are live and how much they work for the city. If you look at October 1st, we have recovered again. Every problem this city had – the Great Recession – we have fought back. I went on October 1st, I was a victim of the recession.
You were at the concert?
When it started there were six shots and a 30 second pause. My wife said, “I want to go right now, I am not feeling well.” We grabbed her two friends, and when we started running, the shooting turned. It was chaos. We got to the concert a little late; I parked on the dirt road and found a spot nearby. I knew exactly where we were. We got out of there. There was a woman walking with her baby, a 1 year old baby and her husband so we all piled up in the car. It was pretty scary.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
