After COVID-19 concerns forced Plums Bar & Grill on Snelling Avenue to close right before St. Patrick’s Day, St. Thomas students saw less green in the streets and less green in their wallets.
Senior Kevin McQuillan, whose family owns Plums, relied on his steady income from managing Thursday and Saturday’s “college nights” to pay rent.
McQuillan stays busy serving takeout during lunch and dinner hours at his family’s other restaurant, J.R. Mac’s Bar and Grill in St. Paul, but until the government’s small business aid comes through and allows his dad to pay him for his work, the financial pressure is on.
“I had gone from making my rent in a couple of weeks … to making absolutely zero,” McQuillan said.
Although McQuillan said closing Plums has caused “more discontent than worry,” only his family members and two cooks are working at J.R. Mac’s to avoid spending much of the restaurants’ reduced profit on employee pay. He said the worry would become “a lot more real” if people stopped supporting local businesses.
This worry is already real for those who have lost their entire income.
The McQuillan family redirected the Plums phone line to J.R. Mac’s, where they continue to serve takeout. (Song Johansen/TommieMedia)
For students like senior Tommy Pope, who used his Plums bartending job to pay tuition, unemployment hurts.
“It’s a sad, depressing thing,” Pope said.
On top of that, college seniors are worried they won’t be able to find post-graduation jobs because of economic stresses imposed on businesses by COVID-19.
“A lot of places aren’t hiring right now just because they’re unsure,” McQuillan said. “A lot of my friends have been laid off.”
Income isn’t the only thing students miss during the pandemic; they’re missing out on the sense of community they get during the college years. Sophomore server Kieran Hannagan called Plums a “big old family,” where students, alumni and St. Paul residents gather.
“People really, really love that place,” Hannagan said.
The McQuillan family is unsure when their two businesses will be fully operational again, especially after Gov. Tim Walz extended Minnesota’s stay-at-home order to May 4.
However, McQuillan remains positive; he said that, at the earliest, Plums could reopen May 15.
“I don’t want to just reverse the curve right away,” McQuillan said, “but I do think that the second the bars open up, people are going to flock, and it’s going to be a good time.”
Mia Laube can be reached at mia.laube@stthomas.edu.