“While the vandalism is terrible, Char Bar’s real enemy is COVID-19”

Restaurants have been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. With social distancing rules in place, many restaurants across the country are still completely or partially closed to customers. That is true of Char Bar, Washington’s lone kosher meat restaurant, which has been operating on a daily 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. schedule. But last week, things took a turn for the worse. During the mass demonstrations in the nation's capital, two of the restaurant’s windows were shattered, forcing Char Bar to close temporarily.

Michael Chelst, the restaurant’s operator, told Mishpacha that while the windows can be fixed, the pandemic and its effect on business is the real enemy. In addition to his regular patrons, Chelst depends on the many college students who attend university in the area for his business. Large conferences, whether Jewish-themed or not, also draw customers to his eatery. The recent announcement that AIPAC planned to cancel its 2021 policy conference means the robust business Chelst can usually expect during that week has vanished.

“While the vandalism is terrible, Char Bar’s real enemy is COVID-19,” he said.

But help is on the way. Two loyal customers, Aaron Keyak and Bethany Shondark Mandel, teamed up to establish a GoFundMe online fundraiser to support the business. So far, they have raised $9,000. “The events of the last week have been another blow to business, with the storefront windows broken, the restaurant has closed until at least the weekend,” a page at the online fundraiser reads. “The restaurant business is already difficult, and with its small downtown-based community, keeping a kosher restaurant afloat in the nation’s capital has never been easy. Char Bar has been there for us, let’s be there for them.”