Peter Ferriero’s new documentary “Sorry, We’re Closed” is an informative piece that shows the struggles of restaurant owners during the perilous and dangerous time of Covid-19.

The Covid pandemic showed the world America’s true face. The imbeciles who populated the administration at the time completely botched the handling of what should have been only a three to four month lockdown with a minimum of casualties. Due to our leaders’ incompetence, lives were lost, families were destroyed, and businesses big and small suffered.

The administration’s financial bailout for restaurants (The Cares Act) was dishonest in how it was presented to be created to help small businesses. The ruse being that it was the big corporations who received the largest chunks of money. All restaurants found themselves staring at an unsure future. The question of how owners and their staff could move forward with diminished revenues went unanswered.

Ferriro’s documentary examines what chefs faced, as they realized their entire identity has been built on their professional reputations and how their futures are unknown as the landscape was changing.

Filmed in 2020 (the height of the pandemic), Chef Elizabeth Falkner interviews colleagues around the country (Chefs Dominique Crenn, Marc Murphy, Maneet Chauhan, Perry Cheung, and Alice Waters are some of the interviews). Falkner was forced to close her own restaurants as well (due to the financial crash of 2008) and her time with her fellow chefs becomes a form of self-therapy as interviewer and subject find their emotional connections.

Plummeting profit margins, a broken health care system, and physical and mental burnout caused many chefs to feel “tapped out”. Their businesses were not failing due to mismanagement, they were crushed by the boulder of Covid and our government’s inability to handle it properly. These restauranteurs were now navigating the unforeseen crumbling ground of a toxic financial future. For many in the profession, a big reveal from the forced shutdown was the realization of just how fragile the restaurant industry’s systems truly were. There were not enough safeguards in place to rescue the  industry in its time of trouble.

It becomes clear that is almost impossible to return to business as usual. If the industry is to recover, every chef realizes that things must change. As one owner states, “The industry is broken. (America’s) food system is broken… but if you don’t make a plan, you can’t execute that plan and therefore there’s no progress.” The chef is speaking about reshaping his own business and the restaurant industry entire, but his statements mirror the country’s economic and social problems at the time, not to mention the complete bungling of the pandemic here in the United States.

America has long been a broken country that ignores its Climate Change crisis, its health care issues, and its struggling economy. Each of these affect the restaurant profession in major ways. These culinary artists who strive to give diners innovative dishes want the best for their customers and staff, but the world in which they exist must be stable and, most importantly, taken care of.

Each interview is filled with heartbreak and worry, but the collective glimmer of hope shared by the chefs Falkner speaks with is inspiring. Faced with unsure futures, they soldier on. Many give out of their own pocket to cover staffing payroll. They don’t want to lose their people. Their respect for staff and customer speaks to the heartfelt dedication of those who devote their lives to the restaurant industry.

As the pandemic has lifted, many chefs pivoted and found their footing once again. Too many restaurants around this country never recovered, but more survived. The struggles damn near killed a lot of these people. As their livelihoods were reclaimed, the term “survivor” applies to each and everyone of them.

Ferriero’s film sees the Covid shutdown as (quoting Chef Falkner) “a dress rehearsal for Climate Change.” In 2023, Restaurants are back, but what if it happens again? What becomes of everything if another pandemic hits and the country is forced into another lockdown? Available food, staff, and clientele become a worry once again and there can be no promise of a second recovery.

“Sorry, We’re Closed” informs and inspires. Most importantly, it wants us to take a hard look at these very real questions. The Restaurants we love have supported us, now the time has come to help assure they will always be safe.