McNulty: Closing of legendary restaurant K-Paul’s is wake-up call to save others in New Orleans (2024)

K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen made enormous contributions to the restaurant world. Perhaps now, even after it has served its last blackened fish, it can add one more to the list.

Maybe the closing of this epic restaurant will extinguish any doubts about the stakes at hand in the coronavirus crisis and our own roles in the fight against it.

The longer the crisis lasts, the greater the toll it will take. Of course, that starts with lives lost to the deadly disease. It also reaches into the economy and the culture, the intersection where our restaurants sit.

These are confusing times. Restaurants are back open, cooking delicious food again and rolling out the hospitality.

Yet business as usual remains a distant fantasy. Restaurants face the financial peril of a devastated economy and the health risks of simply being open in the pandemic.

Some restaurants that made it through the first few months are closing now as cases rise and the prospect of a finish line recedes further into some drifting future.

In many cases, restaurant owners say these closures are temporary. But some are permanent, and K-Paul’s is now one of them.

Founded by the late, great Paul Prudhomme in 1979, K-Paul’s helped set the table for the modern American culinary scene and inspired a generation of chefs.

But after four months of restrictions, reopening, closing again and no end in sight, the family owners at K-Paul’s couldn’t see a way to carry on.

News of the closing was a shock to many, and it spread far and wide. It hit especially hard close to home, here in New Orleans.

After hearing dire predictions on how bad this crisis would be for our restaurants, we’re starting to see what that actually means.

Restaurants need support on a high level, with funding to remain viable tomorrow if they need to temporarily close today. And they need support from us, every day, not just as customers but as a community helping to slow the virus spread.

There is a bill now progressing through Congress that would provide relief specifically tailored to the restaurant industry, unlike the general business aid Washington provided through the CARES Act.

The Independent Restaurant Coalition and the National Restaurant Association are both working with lawmakers now on this RESTAURANTS Act, which includes measures to allow restaurants to pay staff, rent and other vital expenses, even if they can’t yet reopen.

That funding might not matter if cases keep surging back, though. That’s why restaurants need people to mask up, not just at the restaurant, and not just because state rules now require face masks.

Even if you aren’t visiting restaurants right now, this tactic diminishes virus spread and can hasten the time businesses can return. The same goes with schools, sports and anything else we’re yearning to bring back.

When we pretend that gradual reopening of the economy means we’re back to normal, when we cling to some notion that mask use is controversial, then we are taking things we should value in this community for granted.

The end of K-Paul’s should send a message as loud as butter hitting a hot skillet. Anything we take for granted in this fight is lost.