Coronavirus Pushed This Palo Alto Chinese Restaurant to the Brink, But It Never Closed | Eater SF

"In downtown Palo Alto, Taste—a Sichuan restaurant run by Sandy Liu—came perilously close to permanent closure early in the pandemic when revenue sank to as little as $600 a day and Liu warned she might have to shut within days. Despite that, Taste never closed a single day: Liu says business is "not very good, but it still can survive," able to pay rent and eke out a small profit. A combination of increased takeout demand after shelter-in-place (though business remains uneven day-to-day), a Paycheck Protection Program loan she doesn’t expect will be fully forgiven because she can’t rehire all staff, and a landlord willing to negotiate month-to-month rent terms helped keep the restaurant afloat. Liu, who took over Taste in March 2018 after a decade in financial services and even tapped some retirement savings, worries about the loss of catering and tech-company lunch business but remains fairly upbeat; Taste is known for chile-laden dishes like its spicy fish fillet with pickled veggies, and as Liu puts it, "we keep going." - Luke Tsai