View this email in your browser Live to Fight Another Day by Jon Ortiz, Executive Chef

The Noble Savage Tavern The Noble Savage Tavern is a popular bar and restaurant in downtown Shreveport. It is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo provided by Steven Knight/Louisiana Food Prize at the request of the author. Editors’ note: Stuffed & Busted issued an open call to local service industry professionals to share their personal takes on COVID-19 and the service industry. Chef Jon Ortiz, who took charge of food operations at The Noble Savage Tavern on Sept. 1, 2019, is our first guest columnist in what will be an ongoing series. Please give generously: all "tips" for this newsletter will directly benefit the staff of The Noble Savage Tavern.



It was a cool Friday night, the bay window was open, the band was playing, and The Noble Savage was busy. The coronavirus news was still in its early stages. The newsletter of the Downtown Development Authority recommended that we post about the steps we’d taken to keep our bar clean, and one of my servers suggested that we switch to non-smoking during the scare. We were lucky to enjoy an influx of business. I was feeling optimistic.



However, I couldn’t help noticing a cloud of worry hanging over one of my server’s heads as he painstakingly cleaned menus. I approached him to address his concerns.



“I don’t feel comfortable with this many people in here,” he said. “I have elderly parents, and I don’t want to be the reason why they get sick.”

“While I think it may freak some guests out, I have no problem with you serving with gloves and a mask,” I said to him. “Whatever you need to make yourself feel more comfortable.” Contribute to the Savage's GoFundMe He nodded his head, continued working, and I made my way back to the pass. It hadn’t quite hit Louisiana yet—the fact that this was an extremely dangerous virus—and I contemplated what I would do if we closed down. The whole situation stank of some political fiasco to me. I wasn’t really convinced yet. Was this real? How would my people survive? Who would help us?



My father happened to be in town for a visit. I took him to as many local places I could. We stopped at Ralph’s Place for breakfast that morning, and that’s when I heard the news of a mandatory order to shut down bars the following day.



Now, it was real to me. However, I was still not convinced that COVID-19 was a real health crisis. While the Savage is licensed as a bar, we still serve food. Was I still able to serve food from a bar? Probably. Would to-go food sales be enough to support my entire staff? Definitely not. Could I buckle down and create a pandemic menu, do some marketing, and possibly be able to flip this into a profitable situation? Maybe.



My father and I stopped at Bella Fresca for lunch during what would turn out to be my last dining experience before the shutdown. I drank a few cocktails and savored my trout as I contemplated what the best thing to do would be. Dad got a call from my brother in Las Vegas. Not only had they shut down the MGM, but instead of laying people off, they were firing them. Sartin Law Firm is a proud sponsor of Stuffed & Busted. That’s when it got scary for me. I could only assume that the casinos here in Shreveport would be closing soon. In my head, mass firings and a global pandemic were a recipe for violence and looting. We’re already violent enough in this town. My thoughts went immediately to the safety of my staff, to the possibility of operating under the constant threat of being robbed.



That night, I researched everything. I asked friends and relatives what they thought would be the best course of action. Of course, none of them knew what to do. I scrolled across Facebook, reading reactions from everyone, and that’s when I came across a post from one of my favorite James Beard chefs, Cheetie Kumar. Cheetie is a constant source of inspiration for me. To paraphrase what she said:



“We feel the only ethical thing to do, is to help stop the spread of this virus as quickly as possible. The safety of our staff and community is what’s most important. We are closing until we have had a solid period of isolation.”



That was it: What was the most ethical, responsible thing to do in this situation? Whether I believed the virus was real or not, this was no longer about business, this was about saving lives. If the Savage went out of business because of this, oh well. At least we’d be able to say we did everything that we could to help stop COVID-19. I did not want to be on the wrong side of this, and wind up being the boss who asked his employees to endanger themselves in the name of our owner being able to make a property payment. (Our owner is a great guy, by the way.)



My plan was now to get as many valuables as I could inside of the Savage secured, give our food to our staff, and ask for help. Since then, I’ve made sure that all of our staff are up-to-date on unemployment benefits and food stamps. I’ve worked with the owner to apply for as many grants and disaster loans as we could, and I’ve started a GoFundMe campaign that will go directly to our staff, not the business. I'm happy to say that I feel this was the best course of action. It is obvious that this virus is very real and very dangerous. The Three180 podcast is a proud sponsor of Stuffed & Busted. Along with having giveaways for people who donate, we are also working on “Bar Bonds.” These bonds will be gift certificates to the bar that will be sold at a discount, making them very valuable when we reopen. I suggest my fellow bar operators try the same thing to help bring some cohesiveness to this idea.



I would like to ask my fellow service industry leaders to consider looking into mortgage deferments, refinancing with disaster loans, grants, and even applying for unemployment benefits themselves. This to-go business is putting people at risk, and it is—in my opinion—a truly unnecessary risk. You can find links to our GoFundMe on The Noble Savage Facebook page. Please keep a lookout for when our bonds will be available.



Good luck, and God bless you all! Contribute to the Savage's GoFundMe Sign Up for This Newsletter