The Worcester Square area received sad news last week when a Friday, February 5 Tweet from the Boston Sun announced the closing of a neighborhood favorite, Andre's Café, quoting owner Haido Barnett as being "relieved" after years of battling Methadone Mile and more recent COVID-related problems with "too little help."
Even before the COVID-19 dining restrictions began challenging the industry almost a year ago, South End restaurants and cafés closest to "Mass and Cass", the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, were contending with open and pervasive drug use, sales and paraphernalia surrounding their storefronts; window breaks and robberies; intoxicated and mentally unstable people demanding money and food from restaurant staff and patrons; public elimination and more were already making food-service owners, employees and diners uneasy, and some owners report that the problem has intensified during the pandemic.
The South End News could not reach Barnett by press time, but other business owners shared their experiences.
Nick Theodoropoulos, the smiling face of the restaurant Code 10, both behind the counter and at doorstep deliveries, came to the U.S. from Greece seven years ago and joined his stepfather in the family business at the corner of Washington Street and East Concord. Theodoropoulos said the café has not put out its customary sidewalk tables the past two summers because of negative activities.
"...we cannot put tables outside in the summer. They sit at the tables and change clothes, shoot drugs. It drives customers away during the summer. Some customers are afraid to walk in the door because they stand outside and ask, 'Are you going to get something to eat? Can you get me food? Sometimes they pull out a knife and start fighting with each other. Sometimes they are really aggressive when customers say no. It causes a public fear."
Theodoropoulos said such incidents repel diners. "Some of the drug addicts pull their pants down and pee right in the street. A customer saw it and said, "What is this? That's disgusting.' They never came back. He added, "It's really scary when you see someone with a knife trying to stop cars turning at the corner. It really affects our business in a negative way. It's not just me, but all the businesses in the South End area."
Theodoropoulos thinks that drug dependent denizens of the area being failed by the public health system. "The city should take care of them in a better way than they do right now. They should get better treatment and medication so they could have a normal life."
The 2015 opening of restaurant Café Quattro, 817 Harrison Avenue, roughly coincided with homeless and drug treatment services relocating to the Mass and Cass area after the fall, 2014 closure of Long Island. After closing his former Beacon Hill location when his landlord abruptly doubled his rent, Butland searched for two years for a new location before rejuvenating the long-empty storefront at 817 Harrison Avenue and filling it with the aroma of delectable pizza, pasta and sandwiches and with happy customers.
Butland has seen the gamut of illegal and unsafe activities both inside and outside his shop, including a December 2019 break-in resulting in significant property damage and loss. He observed, "Aside from the break in, we witness open drug use, open drug sales, extreme aggressiveness, regular verbal assaults, threats of violence, loitering, overdoses, and a lot of going to the bathroom in the open. There is also very little adherence to mask guidelines and when we ask people to put on a mask, or to at least step back from the takeout window, we are usually met with aggressive behavior and verbal assault, which can tend to scare paying customers away."
While Butland has seen these activities for years, the pandemic has exacerbated the problems. "The pandemic has definitely amplified these behaviors," he said. "I think a lot of it has to do with lack of adherence to Covid safety guidelines. I have so many people coming at us without masks and acting aggressively towards my employees that I had to move to a takeout window only model early on during the pandemic. I just can't in good conscience put my staff and myself at risk...My staff tries to remain vigilant and safe the best they can. We try to keep a positive attitude in a tough situation. Many times, by the end of the night, we are completely mentally worn out and exhausted. We tend to get used to certain behaviors, but a lot of it is completely unacceptable."
Butland has, however, been heartened by police support. "The police from D-4 are amazing. In addition to frequenting the cafe, they also try to keep an eye on us to make sure we are ok. I think they have a lot of empathy for my staff. Many officers have given us their personal numbers so we can reach them directly if we need help. They have always been there in seconds when we need them. I have also witnessed many examples of officers showing empathy for individuals outside that need assistance: buying them food, giving them rides to get help, and directing them to services that can help them." Since the pandemic began, Butland's operating costs have spiraled, both for inventory and for PPE.
"Our industry as a whole has been decimated by the pandemic. I think the effects are intensified in our section of the South End. We pay a premium rent, and rely heavily on foot traffic, and it's just not there. Our pricing has largely stayed the same. Just last week, I had a business meeting with one of my longtime suppliers, and after watching in horror as someone went to the bathroom outside the restaurant, he turned to me and said, 'You've gotta get out of here.' When people hear what we pay for rent, then they see the environment that we work in, they are utterly flabbergasted."
At the corner of Mass. Avenue and Harrison Ave., Grille 705 has been highly impacted the beginning of relocation of addiction and homeless services to Mass and Cass. For years, the restaurant was a busy stop for bathroom facilities by many homeless people and others who came into Boston for services, and many of those people were not paying customers.
Grille 705 owner related his experiences. "My business is affected too because of the increase of drug addict people in the neighborhood. People overdose around here often, and there is a lot of human waste in the back alley on Trask street. Every morning we come to see trash all over the place because homeless people take trash out of the dumpster and leave them on the floor, and some stupid city worker comes at 7: 00 AM and writes a violation for site cleanliness. When I purchased my commercial condo in 2007, the real estate tax was around $14,000.00 and now it is around $27,000.00. I don't understand why the taxes go so high in this neighborhood. I am fed up with these people and the city is not doing anything about it."
As the city transitions to a new acting mayor, it remains to be seen whether there will be a new approach to supporting South End business owners facing this unique dilemma.