Fon's Story

Fon Spaulding, Kati Vegan Thai
Seattle, WA

I opened a vegan Thai restaurant two and a half years ago after learning how to cook from my mother. I wanted to create a space with the belief that food, much like life itself, just needs the right ingredients and timing to shine.

Before COVID-19, our business was thriving. Over the years, we’ve expanded to 25 employees. We’d have a line out the door for lunch on an average day, the restaurant filled with Amazon and other tech workers. We did brisk business at night, too. 

Then came the virus. When word of the virus first got out, our business dropped by 20 percent. That was tough, but I thought we could survive it. 

But once Amazon closed its doors and told its employees to work from home, business plummeted. We’ve lost 80 percent of our revenue. 

When Amazon announced the decision to close its buildings, we knew it would hurt us but agreed that it was the right decision. They had to do it. But the closure has had a terrible ripple effect for us. Today, two people came in for lunch on a day we would have been packed.

With our revenue so reduced, I’ve had to lay off employees and cut hours for more. 

I’m doing everything I can to keep our business going. I’m cleaning and sanitizing all the time. But that’s not bringing people through our doors. We have city, state, and federal taxes coming due in a month, and I don’t know how we’re going to pay them.