Henri’s Story

Henri Schock, Bottlehouse, Root Culture Lab, Mr. West
Seattle, WA

Ten years ago my wife and I opened Bottlehouse, a restaurant and wine bar in Seattle’s Madrona neighborhood. Since then we’ve started Root Culture Lab, an interior and graphic design firm, and two locations of our all-day cafes, Mr. West. As of March 15, we employed around 75 people. On March 16, we laid off 40 of them. I can’t say for sure if we’ll find ourselves needing to lay off more before the end of the month. 

Each layoff is a personal and familial crisis that is being repeated by the tens of thousands in our city and the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, across our country. My top concern is to take care of my employees and to ensure we take care of others in the restaurant industry and other sectors facing layoffs, reduced hours and reduced income.

In this time of crisis, I can’t meet the needs of my employees on my own. In Seattle, our local and state governments are working tirelessly to hold back the crisis and in many ways they’re performing admirably. But the scope of the situation requires a scale of solutions only the federal government can provide. 

My businesses are staying open to the extent that we can while still abiding the restrictions put in place and keeping our employees and customers safe. We’re doing it for one reason: to keep our employees in their jobs. 

This means we’re operating at a steep loss, and it’s not clear how long we’ll be able to do that. If the crisis lasts as long as experts say, I’ll almost certainly end up closing my businesses and laying most if not all my staff. Our unemployment insurance system has already been stressed; more layoffs could lead to chaos and collapse. 

For my business and others, our most critical need is immediate access to funds. We need quick and substantial support to keep people employed. We also need assistance with major operating expenses like rent and mortgage. And we need to be able to postpone our debts; without revenue, we can’t make these payments now. 

The message to my staff when I laid them off was that I was 100% committed to hiring each and every one of them as soon as I could. With the crisis deepening every day, it’s clear to me that I’ll need massive support to do that. Our leaders in Olympia and in Washington, DC should do everything in their power to provide that support in the quickest way possible.