Some Austin restaurants near the UT campus are facing financial difficulties and are at risk of shutting down because they were forced to adapt their operations during the pandemic.

According to a survey released Sept. 16 by the Texas Restaurant Association, half of the surveyed Texas restaurant operators said it was unlikely their restaurants will still be in business in six months if there is no additional relief from the federal government. 

West Campus restaurant Sushi Niichi announced last week that it would be closing in October after about 14 years in operation. Leo Li, the current owner, said COVID-19 and the closing of University Towers last year were contributing factors to the restaurant’s decreasing customer traffic.

“A couple of customers called in to wish us luck,” Li said. “They do know that we're closing, and they were pretty sad about it.”

Special education senior Marissa Cole said the restaurant was one of her favorites, and she and her best friend went there constantly. 

“I kind of saw it coming just because their hours had changed, and they still weren’t open for dine-in service,” Cole said. “I wasn't super surprised, but it was really sad.”

Aaron Matassa, a fundraising lead for Frontline Foods, said the organization partnered with Austin restaurants to support them during the pandemic by buying meals to deliver to hospital workers.

“Our primary goal is economic empowerment of local restaurants, to help them survive the pandemic during the shutdown orders,” Matassa said.

Matassa said the nonprofit has bought over $120,000 worth of food from local restaurants since they launched their Austin branch in April.

Eric Silverstein, founder of The Peached Tortilla, an Asian fusion restaurant, said he partnered with Frontline Foods after revenue dropped by half when they converted to only accepting takeout orders in the spring.

“Every dollar helps,” Silverstein said. “And business has slowly gotten better, but we're still far away from what it was six months ago.”

Over 70% of restaurant operators said they don’t expect their sales to go back to precoronavirus levels within six months, according to the Texas Restaurant Association survey.

“We anticipate a pretty slow recovery,” Silverstein said. “I don't expect things to change in the next couple months.”

Nationally, restaurants' current staffing levels were reported to be about 71% of what they were before COVID-19, according to the National Restaurant Association survey of 3,500 restaurants.

Aster’s Ethiopian Restaurant shut down for the first two months of the pandemic but they continued to pay staff, said Kassaye Kassaye, who runs the restaurant with his family. Kassaye said their business is reliant on students that live in the area.

“Six weeks into (the pandemic) … we opened up just for the day and actually gave out the plates (for free) because everybody was down,” Kassaye said. “It was a weird time, (and) we wanted our customers to know that we're still around.”

Although the pandemic has been tough on the restaurant industry, Kassaye said he believes the restaurant can make it through as people start to dine out again.

“The pandemic has been really hard on us financially, but it's one of those things — stick together, try to keep your head down and keep working, and hopefully we can stay in business,” Kassaye said.