By LU Yibei, WU Rong

Lao Mai, who runs a vintage coffee shop in Shanghai, has been busy for the past week for the resumption of dining-in on June 29: he told all employees to complete Covid tests, check health certificates, fill out a series of forms required by the government for quarantine inspection, disinfect the shop with alcohol wipes and clean up for guests.

The coffee shop stocked its signature coffee in advance and changed to a batch of new coffee beans. The original beans have not expired but have been kept for a little longer than usual.

“Don’t let the beans affect the coffee’s taste. The new coffee beans are also a symbol of a fresh start,” Lao Mai said.

Lao Mai has been waiting to resume dining in for a long time.

Shanghai officials recently announced that from June 29, dine-in restaurants would be opened in streets and towns within the jurisdiction where there were no medium-risk areas and no epidemic in the past week.

But many small-scale restaurants didn't make it, including another coffee shop of Lao Mai’s on Jiaozhou Road.

The cafe, which opened three years ago, cost 700,000 yuan (US$104,292) to renovate and more than 300,000 yuan for the transfer fee. Before the pandemic spread in Shanghai, its daily turnover needed to reach about 6,000 yuan to maintain the balance of income and expenditure. However, after the shop reopened in June, it only made 200 yuan a day.

“The coffee shop has a high rent and is a little far from the Metro station, leading to poor customer flow,” Lao Mai told Jiemian News. “But it was the two rounds of Covid in 2020 and this year that finally destroyed it, losing more than 2 million yuan in three years.”

Finally, Lao Mai decided to close up the shop. “At least we can save our flagship store in Wukang Mansion,” he said.

Sober Company used to be one of the busiest bars in Shanghai. The sleek two-story building combines coffee with a restaurant and bar. It’s a place where interesting people in the city and world-renowned bartenders are known to gather. But after three months of stagnation, it has now had to suspend operations.

During this round of the Covid outbreak, apart from being shut down, Sober Company had to pay nearly 200,000 yuan a month in rent and staff salaries. It even tried to balance the books by selling soju takeout.

“We started doing take-out in June, but we probably didn’t make as much in a month as we did before in a week,” a Sober Company director said.

This fall, Sober Company is expected to have a new start.

“Now we have almost confirmed our new store location. From design to decoration, and then a trial operation period, it will be open to customers this fall,” the director said. "Though leaving the old spot in such haste means losing ten million yuan more."

The Hong Kong-style Cha’s Restaurant has been open in Shanghai for over 10 years, becoming much-loved by many Shanghainese. Charlie Hau, the founder, said that when he came to the mainland to participate in the filming of Ang Lee’s film Lust, Caution, he couldn’t find authentic Cantonese food, so he opened his own restaurant in Shanghai.

Now, all three Cha restaurant stores in Shanghai have closed. Someone on a social network claimed Hau had returned to Hong Kong. Jiemian News also tried to contact him but to no avail.

“Losing confidence has a bigger impact than losing money,” said one owner of two Hong Kong-style restaurants.

Like Hau, he came to Shanghai from Hong Kong to join the catering industry. During the three months of the pandemic, he lost more than 500,000 yuan, but he still chose to stick through and wait for the day for dining-in to resume.

"My regulars just want a place to gather with their friends, and I’m sure that once we get through this, things will slowly recover,” he said.

The remaining restaurant owners are trying to find a way to turn things around.

Lao Mai said he felt lucky that his shuttered coffee shop was quickly taken over by someone he trusted.

“This guy used to read a book that I wrote, and he used to come to my coffee shop. He appreciated the environment and felt sorry for me for losing so much money, so he gave me a big transfer fee,” Lao Mai said. “You can’t be greedy for more and must just concentrate on what you have.”

This is Lao Mai’s key takeaway and something all coffee sellers and those in the catering industry need to be alert to.

“Although there are regrets, I hope people can still face the closure with a positive attitude because we will come back,” the Sober Company’s director said.