PKWY Tavern owner reopening several sites after navigating pandemic

Like countless others successful the nutrient and beverage industry, Jonathan Fine has seen plentifulness of turmoil since the pandemic hit.

The Las Vegas barroom proprietor was forced to adjacent his taverns past year, faced eviction threats from landlords, tossed retired hundreds of kegs of beer, and reopened aggregate locations with the assistance of a national alleviation program.

Today, Southern Nevada’s system is inactive climbing backmost the pandemic’s devastation, and Fine is opening much places for radical to devour and drink.

The 44-year-old laminitis of Fine Entertainment, whose holdings see Pkwy Tavern, ameriCAN, Rockhouse, and PBR Rock Bar, opened the 5th Pkwy Tavern determination this period adjacent the M Resort and plans to unfastened the sixth successful the Spring Valley country successful precocious September.

The second is successful the erstwhile location of Ricardo’s, a decades-old Mexican edifice that closed aft the pandemic hit.

Fine comes from a household of salient section businesspeople. His dad, existent property developer Mark Fine, helped motorboat the Summerlin and Green Valley master-planned communities, and his brother, Jeffrey Fine, owns a portfolio of food-and-beverage spots, including the area’s Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf locations.

Moreover, his uncle Brian Greenspun owns the Las Vegas Sun, and his father-in-law, Kenny Epstein, owns downtown’s El Cortez hotel-casino.

Fine sat down with the Review-Journal successful aboriginal August and talked astir his business, the pandemic, and however Las Vegas has bounced backmost from crises, including the Oct. 1, 2017, wide shooting astatine the Route 91 Harvest state euphony festival, which helium and his woman escaped from aft a gunman opened occurrence connected the audience.

The interrogation was edited for magnitude and clarity.

Can you speech astir the impacts of COVID connected your business?

If I’m putting idiosyncratic into a spot to work, and they’re going to interface with people, are they safe? That was my biggest fear. The disguise mandate was lifted earlier this caller question of COVID, but we didn’t fto our employees instrumentality their masks off. I don’t cognize who’s right, I don’t privation to get political, but it’s beauteous casual for my employees to deterioration a disguise during their shift, overmuch similar a caregiver oregon a doctor. I deliberation it makes the lawsuit consciousness safer.

Did you get Paycheck Protection Program loans?

We did; it was a lifeline. There were immoderate locations that the landlords worked with us, immoderate locations the landlords did not enactment with us. I wouldn’t person been capable to unfastened astir fractional of our locations without the PPP.

If we adjacent down for 3 days, that’s 1 thing. We adjacent down for a month, and each your dairy, each your vegetables and fruits, they each spell bad. You adjacent down for 2 months, each your meats, adjacent if we tin frost them, which we don’t do, each those get bad. In my company, we had astir $3.5 cardinal successful existent payables the time we unopen down. We’re inactive paying it off.

We sat down with the full unit of each azygous barroom and said, “We deliberation the government’s going to unopen everything down. If I’m wrong, we’ll beryllium unfastened successful 48 hours. If I’m right, you guys are the archetypal radical to get successful enactment for unemployment, and anyone who needs nutrient oregon has families, instrumentality what you tin take.” We did astir similar a marketplace wherever we conscionable gave distant the fruits and the vegetables to the staff. I would accidental precise small nutrient got wasted. A batch of brew got wasted; a LOT of brew got wasted.

Can you estimation however overmuch you had to flip oregon determination down the drain?

I would accidental astir apt successful the scope of 500 kegs of beer. Some of my liquor vendors said, “Pay us.” Some of them gave america discounts. No 1 waived everything. Everyone gave america outgo plans.

Did you look eviction astatine immoderate of your locations?

I would accidental 70 percent of my landlords threatened to evict us.

What was your effect to that?

I didn’t cognize if we were going to suffer our house, oregon if we were going to travel retired of this stronger than we started. I person a 2-year-old who’s present grown up passim the pandemic. I woke up each greeting early. I made her breakfast; we swam, we played, we did picnics wherever we could spot horses. I tried to not suffer immoderate hair, I tried to not accent arsenic overmuch arsenic possible. I knew economically we could reopen astatine slightest 2 of the places, possibly 3 oregon four. And past erstwhile the PPP came out, it was the lifeline, allowing america to unfastened everything.

You person locations connected the Strip and extracurricular the Strip. How has the nutrient and beverage manufacture recovered connected the Strip versus the residential areas of the valley?

On the Strip, erstwhile we reopened, nary 1 was around. It was a shade town. Then determination were months successful 2021, starting astir March Madness, that the revenues were considerably higher than pre-pandemic. We were filling edifice rooms, but not everything was open. As things person reopened, we spot that tourism is back, but it’s not wherever it was, truthful our numbers person travel backmost down beneath pre-pandemic numbers.

Off the Strip, we person not deed the pre-pandemic numbers yet. We’re doing well, but section places are not hitting the numbers they were pre-pandemic.

Why bash you deliberation that is?

We are a marque that takes pub backmost to its history, a nationalist gathering place, a gathering place. We privation radical to socialize, play games, conscionable each other. Pre-pandemic, we had parties wherever you’d beryllium with a alien and speech to them. It was a precise social, interactive place. We haven’t been capable to bash immoderate of that.

Those large radical events, those large parties, they haven’t travel back?

There’s nary crushed for them to travel back. People can’t bash the bowling, they can’t bash the darts.

The games wherever you’re touching worldly and radical are sharing tiny items, those person not travel backmost to your bars yet?

Correct. When the disguise mandate came back, we went backmost to each those restrictions. That’s however we’re treating it; I’m not definite that that’s the existent law.

How galore employees did you person earlier the pandemic and however galore bash you person now? I conjecture possibly present it’s a small higher due to the fact that you’re opening a mates locations.

I deliberation we’re backmost up into the 580-ish range. We were conscionable nether 700 pre-pandemic. And we’re having occupation getting radical back, we’re having occupation staffing the kitchens, uncovering radical successful front-of-house.

We are precise fortunate to travel retired of this. I’m precise happy, amazed, shocked that 18 months agone I was successful the spot we were in, and to beryllium capable to unfastened a spot is simply a testament to however resilient Las Vegas is, however resilient the radical who unrecorded present are, and however dedicated they are to the city. When you look astatine Oct. 1, we bounced back. Every occupation this metropolis has had — the Great Recession, we bounced back. I was astatine Oct. 1, I was a unfortunate of the recession.

You were astatine the concert?

When it started happening, determination were six shots and a intermission for 30 seconds. My woman said, “I privation to permission close now, I don’t consciousness comfortable.” We grabbed her 2 friends, and arsenic we started moving out, the shooting went crazy. It was chaos. We got to the performance a small late; I parked successful the ungraded lot, and I recovered a spot that was close. I knew precisely wherever we were. We got retired of there. There was a pistillate moving with her baby, a 1-year-old baby, and her husband, truthful we ended up piling everybody successful the car. It was beauteous scary.

Contact Eli Segall astatine esegall@reviewjournal.com oregon 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall connected Twitter.