Coronavirus in NY: Restaurants announce mass layoffs as pandemic puts city in chokehold

The coronavirus’ death grip on the five boroughs is choking the life out of many city businesses, with a slew of establishments announcing significant layoffs Wednesday.

Restaurants have been particularly hard-hit — hamstrung first by would-be customers’ reticence to hit the streets for fear of the contagion, then by a Monday pact among the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to bar sit-down dining.

“We are taking the most distasteful medicine we have ever ingested for the purpose of being around when the sun shines again,” said restaurateur Danny Meyer in a video announcing “mass layoffs” at his Union Square Hospitality Group.

The culinary empire — which includes Manhattan mainstays such as the Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern — was forced Wednesday to lay off approximately 2,000 workers, representing about 80 percent of its total workforce, according to the Eater food blog.

The cuts included both hourly and salaried workers at restaurants and corporate offices and were necessitated by a “near complete elimination of revenue,” a USHG spokesperson told the outlet.

The group chose to forgo a delivery-only model and shutter its joints last Friday — before the government-mandated restrictions on restaurants, bars and virtually all other businesses where people congregate — in an attempt to protect its workers and patrons alike, Meyer said.

The sobering financial reality of a total closure, whether self-imposed or forced, quickly became evident.

“We have laid off more people today than we probably hired in the first 20, 25 years we were in business,” said Meyer. “I can’t believe those words just came out of my mouth.

“This has been a breathtaking blow to our society.”

Meyer was far from alone in having to jettison staff in the short-term in an attempt to stay afloat in the long-term.

Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio said this week he had to lay off 300 people at his Crafted Hospitality restaurant group.

And Upper West Side restaurateur Cristina Castaneda said Wednesday that she had to lay off more than 100 employees across her three establishments.

“We’re preparing for the worst,” said Castaneda, who says she is “devastated” that she has to let go her staff of hosts, servers, busboys, cooks, chefs, dishwashers and delivery workers — as well as managers and some corporate employees.

“These people are going to be on their own as of today, and we fear that they don’t have enough money to survive,” said Castaneda, who was forced to close Café Frida but will keep open Ella Social and El Mitote for takeout and delivery for the time being. “We were not ready for this. I don’t think anybody in the world was.”

The hardships have not been limited to restaurants — or to Manhattan.

Venerable Brooklyn event space Grand Prospect Hall has slashed staff amid prohibitions on large gatherings, owner Michael Halkias told The Post.

“We had to lay off five people,” said Halkias, who said he normally keeps a staff of five to 15 at a given time.

“We had no choice,” said Halkias. “It’s very stressful for the people. They have to pay the bills.”

Halkias — whose South Slope venue just had to cancel a “big event” of 2,000 people — said that it’s as though the coronavirus and the restrictions that come with it had sapped New Yorkers of their joy.

“People stopped dancing, and they stopped singing and they stopped drinking,” he said.

But Castaneda and Meyer were leading efforts to shepherd their workers through the turbulent times — and looking toward someday emerging from the disease’s long shadow.

Castaneda on Thursday will deliver two weeks’ worth of food to her laid-off employees.

“I think this is the only safe thing we can do to make sure that our people are not hungry, regardless of whatever happens,” she said.

And the workers cast off from Meyer’s USHG have all been encouraged to reapply for their jobs once the restaurants reopen, according to a company email obtained by Eater.

In the meantime, USHG will foot the bill for its former employees’ health insurance through mid-April, the report said.

“We want to be here with you . . . when that day comes — which we can all visualize — when our restaurants and bars and jazz clubs and events and ballparks and museums are back to doing business as normal,” said Meyer.

Additional reporting by Natalie Musumeci