LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A heat wave is about to hit the Commonwealth, and there's no other choice for a restaurant with a busted air conditioning unit.
“My wife and I can’t do that to our employees,” said Bourbon N’ Toulouse co-owner Kevin Heathcoat. “We can’t have customers eating in a hot kitchen, and I’m not going to let our employees sweat it out in an unsafe work environment,” he continued.
While the landlord addresses the issue of installing a new A/C unit, Kevin will shut down for a week or so. He will also continue to pay his employees during their absence.
“It’s not their fault,” he insisted before noting that they’d still take a hit on the lost tips.
The restaurant’s owner decided to make the most of this situation by offering what essentially amounts to an everything-must-go-event. Customers are being offered steep discounts on Wednesday before the Thursday closing. The hope is to make up some of the money lost this month while emptying the refrigerator of items that will ultimately go to waste anyway.
Corie Mackey, a former restaurant owner who works here now, knows every part of this was a tough decision, and the choice to pay everyone during the closure was not at all mandatory.
“I saw it during the pandemic. They took care of their employees during quarantine when everything was shut down, and they’ve done it again. You love to see it,” she said before the lunch rush began outside the front door.
They hope customers will spend the day caring for them to cover a week's worth of losses.
“Profit margin in this business is razor thin. You have one week to make profit; the other three go towards expenses,” Kevin explained how damaging the closure will be to the business.
“We got through the pandemic, and we’ll get through this,” he stated.
