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At the end of the day, we sacrificed and paid for everything ourselves - we just had to keep going into our funds. But, we were losing - just like everyone else. Because of that, it was sustainable, we were able to push through.
![wake n bacon wake n bacon](https://www.eatwakenbacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/IMG_3982-270x370.jpeg)
We were kind of lucky that the indoor ban happened right when we opened because we didn’t have a ton of staff. If we didn’t receive those aids, there was a higher chance that we would have shut down. But it’s like a Band-Aid on an open wound - it can only do so much. The grants and loans certainly helped, those funds were used strictly for payroll and rent. We made a comparison between if we closed and waited until indoor dining reopened versus just staying open, and we would’ve taken a lesser loss if we had closed. Gabriel: In December we sat and looked closely at our loss differences.
WAKE N BACON SERIES
They received a Small Business Association loan and aid from the Chicago Hospitality Grant Program, but neither presented long-term solutions.Īs part of our series on how immigrant restaurants have survived the pandemic, Borderless Magazine spoke with Gabriel and Sarah about their journey as restaurateurs and how the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge in their latest endeavor.
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When Wake ‘N Bacon finally opened, Illinois’ second indoor dining ban went into effect a week later, forcing the duo to further stretch their creativity to reinvent the restaurant they had just finished building. Then, COVID-19 shut down Chicago, significantly delaying construction plans. Initially, everything was going according to plan for the couple, who aspire to remix iconic American brunch fare with flavors from their multicultural family recipes: Gabriel is Salvadorian and Argentinian, and Sarah was born in Taiwan to a Taiwanese mother and Chinese Filipino father.