Help Mekong Cafe Stay Open

Mekong Café is a family owned restaurant located in Milwaukee, WI. We been serving delicious Laos, Thai and Vietnamese food since 2008. We call the corner of 60th and North Ave home. Since March 2020 we had to adapt and navigate mandatory dining room closures and ever-changing regulations. We had to find our way through the pandemic.

We applied for loans but the restaurant revitalization funds were exhausted. The grants we got wasn’t enough to offset the expenses that was piling up. We took a chance and risked all our money in reserve to purchase new refrigeration and equipment. We took a leap of faith and pivoted to turn our dining room into a grocery store in hope to stay afloat and keep our doors open. After we made those changes we saw a little dim light at the end of the tunnel. With the love and support we had from our community, it gave us a boost financially. It was a breath of fresh air and felt like we had finally gotten to a point where we were doing okay.

Then we got hit with a storm in our area and brought us a substantial amount of loss to our business. We were out of power for 3 days and was forced to close. Loss of business and wages for our staff due to the power outage. Even after power was restored we had to close for another day to count our losses, clean and dispose all the lost perishable items in our cooler and freezers from our grocery and restaurant side. This time the loss is greater I am afraid I can’t keep up with all the losses we had.

We filed a claim with our insurance company but are waiting a letter from We Energies to submit with or inventory losses. We hit a hurdle in the process because We Energies state that we had no power for only one day Thursday August 12th power was gone at 5:38pm and was restored at 7:29pm according to their feeder. This was not the case. We had no power Tuesday evening August 10th thru Thursday Evening August 12th. We were still closed Friday 13th to still recover from our losses.

We didn’t want to go to GoFundMe. That wasn’t in our periphery. We realize that you may be going through some hardships and is also affected by this storm as well. If supporting us financially is not available for you at the moment, we completely understand. We hope this short-term solution will help bridge the gap and keep us open until we get our insurance compensation. The funds will help pay for what we owe our vendors in the amount of $17,000 and the lost wages of staff. My heart goes out to all my fellow friends, community and small businesses in my area that was also affected by this storm.

We stand united in our belief that as a community we will come out of this tunnel stronger still. I thank you all and we remain forever grateful for your support.

With love,

The Mekong Family