Short Stack Needs Your Help

We cannot thank you enough for all of your support. We are going to keep pushing for as long as we possibly can. We can't do anything without the support of our customers and community, we never could. From the bottom of our hearts: THANK YOU.

- A & S

--------

We are humbly asking for financial support from our community.

In sum, COVID debt and ongoing rising costs are continuing to crush our restaurant. With lines out the door on the weekends, many assume business as usual at Short Stack. But Short Stack is not cutting it financially and we are left with no other choice but to ask for help. We ask those who have continued to enjoy our food over the past decade to please donate to help us continue to serve the best breakfast food in town, support our incredible staff, and continue to run a business that is sustainable. If you are unable to contribute financially, we would be very grateful if you could share this GoFundMe within your networks.

The causes for our current financial crisis are the rising costs of all of our goods, our rent and occupancy costs, high labor costs, and the need to upkeep basic equipment as we come up on ten years of business. In normal times these costs would have been realistic to front ourselves, but debilitating COVID debt continues to crush us three years later.

To be fully transparent, we (Alex & Sinéad) have depleted our own savings, maxed out our personal credit cards, and are hardly able to pay ourselves in an attempt to ensure our staff, local vendors, and landlords continue to get paid. We have also stayed dedicated to ensuring all of our beloved customers continue to receive the highest quality breakfast and service. We have exhausted all our resources to make it through the pandemic and now, like many other local restaurants, we are struggling to survive.

We have been forced to continue to raise menu prices and have opened our doors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to try to make ends meet. We have asked our landlord for a rent reduction and taken on EIDL loans and other debt to cover basic operating expenses. Despite paying $14,000/month in rent, our landlords do not maintain the building, so we are forced to cover high building maintenance costs ourselves. We are working diligently to renegotiate our lease terms so that we can simply keep our doors open.

During COVID the government gave out grants called Restaurant Relief Funds (RRF). These funds didn’t need to be paid back and we worked tirelessly with our accountants to be as prepared as possible when the RRF application opened. Ultimately the government ran out of money and didn’t properly allocate funds, so we did not receive anything. Thankfully other Madison restaurants did receive these grants–some even as much as +$3million–which is incredible. We are very happy for those restaurants as they have been able to recover because of it and we know first-hand how much this was desperately needed. We now stand alongside the local restaurants that did not receive these grants and are at a similar crossroads–to either ask for help or shut our doors.

Our current model has become unsustainable not only because of the financial hole from COVID but we are also unwilling to sacrifice our values and mission. We consistently work to give liveable employee wages and benefits, community support and advocacy, and sourcing high-quality local food products (to name a few). We are NOT a Denny’s/IHOP and simply cannot justify cutting costs by serving low-quality food or reducing employee wages. We can only continue to operate if we hold true to these standards.

Over the years it has become clear that our customers and community value what we do. Our goal has always been to serve quality food, provide a safe and community-driven space, & give visibility, support and advocacy to folks that need it. It is this love and support from the community that has kept us moving forward in the hardest moments these last few years. We acknowledge that we have a LONG road ahead of us and we appreciate each and every one of you.

With deep love & gratitude,

Alex and Sinéad

P.S. For folks that are old school, checks can be made out & mailed to:

Short Stack Eatery

301 W. Johnson St.

Madison, WI 53703