Bravo Willow Lake Relief Fund
Donation protected
Since opening its doors in 1998, Bravo Cucina Italiana at Willow Lake has proudly served the people of Indiana with some of the finest Italian and Mediterranean cuisine in America. For over two decades it was a dining institution for residents on the northwest side of Indianapolis, and its excellent food, thoughtful service, and special atmosphere made it a popular destination for everyone throughout the city and beyond.
All of us on the team at Bravo Willow Lake poured our hearts and souls into our jobs and we tried our best to provide the most enjoyable dining experience possible for all of our guests. Every guest, every table, and every day mattered.
We developed a special bond with the community. You chose to share the special events of your lives with us. We celebrated your birthdays, helped you welcome new additions to your families, and consoled you as you mourned the loss of loved ones. We hosted your prom and wedding rehearsal dinners, graduation and retirement parties, bridal and baby showers, bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs, business meetings and sales presentations, church groups and charities, and book clubs.
You spent your holidays with us - Valentine's Day, Easter Sunday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve were our busiest times of the year and we always stepped up to make them fun and worthwhile events.
But most days you chose to come in simply because you craved a great meal and a nice drink. You wanted a familiar place to unwind after work, or to bring your kids after picking them up from school, or to reward yourself after a doctor's appointment or a long stay at the hospital. We helped you catch up with longtime friends you haven't seen in a while, conveniently provided our meals to go so you wouldn't have to cook, and gave you someone to confide in when you just wanted to sit at the bar and talk. We wanted to give you an escape from the stress and problems of daily life and the outside world.
But this is an unprecedented time in world history. Fear, uncertainty, and necessary public health safety measures have made things difficult for all of us. On Monday, March 16, Governor Holcomb declared that all restaurants in Indiana would have to close their dine-in facilities and shift to providing carry outs and deliveries only. As a team we had the understanding that we would only be gone temporarily until the health crisis had subsided, and that Bravo would focus on to-go meals like other restaurants.
Only three nights later, on Thursday, March 19, a HotSchedules message was sent out by management that Bravo's parent company, Food First Global Restaurants, had decided to simultaneously shut down and permanently close 42 of its restaurants around the country, including Bravo at Willow Lake.
This shocking corporate decision left all of our bewildered team members abruptly unemployed with nowhere to come back to, and given current circumstances, nowhere for us to go do what we do best. In three short days we went from a government-mandated temporary leave of absence and focusing on to-go orders to being closed forever, never to return.
The entire restaurant industry is struggling and will never be the same. All dine-in restaurants have lost tremendous amounts of revenue and restaurant workers everywhere have been laid off. But while most companies have shown support for their employees during this crisis, Food First Global Restaurants made no apparent attempt to do so. There was no severance offered, no official apology from those in corporate, and no real explanation as to what factors ultimately led to their decision to permanently close so many stores. There is no mention whatsoever of any of the 42 closures on Food First Global's website, the official Bravo website , or on the Bravo Facebook, Instagram , or Twitter pages. Any direct inquiries about the closures are completely ignored by their social media handlers.
Along with hundreds of other Bravo workers in other cities, the team members of Bravo Willow Lake were all abandoned and cut loose as financial liabilities instead of being reassured and valued as the hardworking human beings we are. For those of us eligible to collect unemployment, we will only receive a small fraction of what we worked tirelessly for during every shift, every day, every week. For those of us not eligible for unemployment, which is the case for many of our talented, devoted, and irreplaceable kitchen employees, there is no safety net at all. Many of us depended solely on the income at Bravo Willow Lake to raise our kids, make house payments and pay rent, and to buy everyday living essentials.
Bravo Willow Lake is currently the ONLY major restaurant in the greater Indianapolis area to have closed permanently since Governor Holcomb's Executive Order on March 16. All other dine-in establishments in the area either continue to operate for deliveries and to-go orders or are closed temporarily.
Bravo at Willow Lake had the best crew in the entire company. We had looked forward to continuing our journey together and would have undoubtedly played a vital role in helping this community recover and eventually get back to normal after America's worst health crisis in over a century.
We had so much more to give.
And now it's over. It's still hard to believe that our time was cut short so suddenly, and it has been difficult for us - especially those who have spent years and years working together - to fully process. We never got the chance to come back to work as a team or to say goodbye to each other, and we were unfairly robbed of the opportunity to express our sincere thanks to all of our loyal guests who made our lives possible. You made us better. It was our honor and privilege to stand with you during so many special occasions over the last 22 years and to help you build lifelong memories with your families and friends.
Now we ask all of you to stand with us once more.
If you would like to help and donate to the team at Bravo Willow Lake, your generosity will be appreciated more than you will ever know.
Thank you.
"This is the fight of our lives...and we're gonna win. Whatever it takes."
If you would like to contact Food First Global Restaurants to share your feelings about their decision to permanently close Bravo Willow Lake, they can be messaged here and contacted by phone at [phone redacted] (Columbus, Ohio) and [phone redacted] (Orlando, Florida). Those at corporate would absolutely love to hear your feedback.
If you are one of the hundreds of guests who cumulatively paid thousands of dollars for Bravo gift cards during our "Buy $100, Get a $25 Bonus" campaign during this past holiday season, or if you are one of the hundreds of guests seeking to use your Bravo Loyalty Rewards discounts, you now have nowhere in the state of Indiana to redeem them.
All of us on the team at Bravo Willow Lake poured our hearts and souls into our jobs and we tried our best to provide the most enjoyable dining experience possible for all of our guests. Every guest, every table, and every day mattered.
We developed a special bond with the community. You chose to share the special events of your lives with us. We celebrated your birthdays, helped you welcome new additions to your families, and consoled you as you mourned the loss of loved ones. We hosted your prom and wedding rehearsal dinners, graduation and retirement parties, bridal and baby showers, bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs, business meetings and sales presentations, church groups and charities, and book clubs.
You spent your holidays with us - Valentine's Day, Easter Sunday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve were our busiest times of the year and we always stepped up to make them fun and worthwhile events.
But most days you chose to come in simply because you craved a great meal and a nice drink. You wanted a familiar place to unwind after work, or to bring your kids after picking them up from school, or to reward yourself after a doctor's appointment or a long stay at the hospital. We helped you catch up with longtime friends you haven't seen in a while, conveniently provided our meals to go so you wouldn't have to cook, and gave you someone to confide in when you just wanted to sit at the bar and talk. We wanted to give you an escape from the stress and problems of daily life and the outside world.
But this is an unprecedented time in world history. Fear, uncertainty, and necessary public health safety measures have made things difficult for all of us. On Monday, March 16, Governor Holcomb declared that all restaurants in Indiana would have to close their dine-in facilities and shift to providing carry outs and deliveries only. As a team we had the understanding that we would only be gone temporarily until the health crisis had subsided, and that Bravo would focus on to-go meals like other restaurants.
Only three nights later, on Thursday, March 19, a HotSchedules message was sent out by management that Bravo's parent company, Food First Global Restaurants, had decided to simultaneously shut down and permanently close 42 of its restaurants around the country, including Bravo at Willow Lake.
This shocking corporate decision left all of our bewildered team members abruptly unemployed with nowhere to come back to, and given current circumstances, nowhere for us to go do what we do best. In three short days we went from a government-mandated temporary leave of absence and focusing on to-go orders to being closed forever, never to return.
The entire restaurant industry is struggling and will never be the same. All dine-in restaurants have lost tremendous amounts of revenue and restaurant workers everywhere have been laid off. But while most companies have shown support for their employees during this crisis, Food First Global Restaurants made no apparent attempt to do so. There was no severance offered, no official apology from those in corporate, and no real explanation as to what factors ultimately led to their decision to permanently close so many stores. There is no mention whatsoever of any of the 42 closures on Food First Global's website, the official Bravo website , or on the Bravo Facebook, Instagram , or Twitter pages. Any direct inquiries about the closures are completely ignored by their social media handlers.
Along with hundreds of other Bravo workers in other cities, the team members of Bravo Willow Lake were all abandoned and cut loose as financial liabilities instead of being reassured and valued as the hardworking human beings we are. For those of us eligible to collect unemployment, we will only receive a small fraction of what we worked tirelessly for during every shift, every day, every week. For those of us not eligible for unemployment, which is the case for many of our talented, devoted, and irreplaceable kitchen employees, there is no safety net at all. Many of us depended solely on the income at Bravo Willow Lake to raise our kids, make house payments and pay rent, and to buy everyday living essentials.
Bravo Willow Lake is currently the ONLY major restaurant in the greater Indianapolis area to have closed permanently since Governor Holcomb's Executive Order on March 16. All other dine-in establishments in the area either continue to operate for deliveries and to-go orders or are closed temporarily.
Bravo at Willow Lake had the best crew in the entire company. We had looked forward to continuing our journey together and would have undoubtedly played a vital role in helping this community recover and eventually get back to normal after America's worst health crisis in over a century.
We had so much more to give.
And now it's over. It's still hard to believe that our time was cut short so suddenly, and it has been difficult for us - especially those who have spent years and years working together - to fully process. We never got the chance to come back to work as a team or to say goodbye to each other, and we were unfairly robbed of the opportunity to express our sincere thanks to all of our loyal guests who made our lives possible. You made us better. It was our honor and privilege to stand with you during so many special occasions over the last 22 years and to help you build lifelong memories with your families and friends.
Now we ask all of you to stand with us once more.
If you would like to help and donate to the team at Bravo Willow Lake, your generosity will be appreciated more than you will ever know.
Thank you.
"This is the fight of our lives...and we're gonna win. Whatever it takes."
If you would like to contact Food First Global Restaurants to share your feelings about their decision to permanently close Bravo Willow Lake, they can be messaged here and contacted by phone at [phone redacted] (Columbus, Ohio) and [phone redacted] (Orlando, Florida). Those at corporate would absolutely love to hear your feedback.
If you are one of the hundreds of guests who cumulatively paid thousands of dollars for Bravo gift cards during our "Buy $100, Get a $25 Bonus" campaign during this past holiday season, or if you are one of the hundreds of guests seeking to use your Bravo Loyalty Rewards discounts, you now have nowhere in the state of Indiana to redeem them.
Organizer
James Salomon
Organizer
Indianapolis, IN