I keep thinking, 'If I can get through this, even if it's a year long, I'll be able to do anything afterwards.'”

Christine Stulik, of The Lady Next Door

We can't wait. Getting (stimulus) money into our hands is going to take a month, at least. A lot of people don't have that much time left.”

Sam Glynn, of Chomp

I'm just doing my best just to keep the store open and offer every sort of accommodation to help people buy safely and feel comfortable.”

Keri Cronin, of DISH

We need to advocate for our small businesses. Sitting on the sidelines being quiet is not advocating in the proper way.”

Warren Town Planner Bob Rullli

WARREN — Sam Glynn was angry. He still is.

As he prepared to open his two Chomp Kitchen and Drinks locations Saturday afternoon, the restaurateur whose burgers have been called the best in the state said he worries for the future not just of his Warren and Providence restaurants, but of hundreds of other small businesses and restaurants across the state.

As the Covid-19 crisis worsens, small shops and restaurants that were barely squeezing by in the summer and fall now have their backs up against the wall, he said. Mr. Glynn sees no letup in the pain as the cold weather arrives and the state continues with tough restrictions enacted in late November to try to keep the virus under control. The federal government's slow progress negotiating a new round of stimulus aid is not helping, he said, but what is worse has been the state's bungling of the financial crisis here.

"If you had asked me a couple of weeks ago how I'm doing, it would have been a different story," he said. "We unfortunately had to make some layoffs last week (to) stop some of the bleeding. We're actually luckier than a lot of people out there. But yeah, it's tough — we're all beat down. The facade is that it's getting better, but for a lot of people it's not."

Mr. Glynn has been a vocal advocate for many entrepreneurs who he says are frustrated with the state's handling of emergency funds and benefits programs for struggling small business owners. His advocacy has included publicly calling out those he believes aren't helping, and his notoriety went nationwide after a recent appearance on Fox Business News.

"So many people have reached out to me with their stories," he said. "I don't think many people know the extent of how badly so many people are doing. People are frustrated."

They're not alone, with many of Warren's officials echoing them.

"We've had that same frustration," Warren Town Planner Bob Rulli said Monday. "There's a lot of it out there."

Mr. Rulli, Warren Town Manager Kate Michaud and members of the Warren Town Council have led the town's effort to help keep Warren's business community afloat during the pandemic, and that includes pressing state officials and looking for answers.

"We're probably a lot more vocal than a lot of other communities," he said. "But we need to advocate for our small businesses. Sitting on the sidelines being quiet is not advocating in the proper way."

The work is frustrating, but there have been some successes. Warren earlier this year tailored local ordinances that allowed more restaurants to operate outdoors in the warmer months. Mr. Rulli's office took on the application process for the state's micro-enterprise grant program earlier this year. And the town eased tax deadlines and has taken other local measures since the start of the crisis.

Officials have also sought grants wherever possible and in September won a $75,000 grant from the state's Take It Outside program. That money was in large part spent on equipment, including tents and heaters, that went to restaurants and other businesses during the fall. It also went to help boost the town's Walk-About, which is normally held one Sunday in October but this year ran six consecutive weekends through the town's Warren Holiday Festival.

Providing answers and guidance to the business owners on his speed dial hasn't been easy, Mr. Rulli said.

Last week, he set up a call with Mr. Glynn, the town's delegation in the General Assembly and Warren Town Council president Keri Cronin, during which Mr. Glynn expressed his frustration with the state of Rhode Island's Covid-19 response and his perception that its restaurant-based restrictions unfairly target an industry that he says has bent over backwards to follow state guidelines. Following the call, Mr. Rulli reached out to the state and hopes to get further answers this coming week on some of Mr. Glynn's issues, and some of his.

There are many, Mr. Rulli said, but emblematic of the problems he is seeing is a $3.8 million pool of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money currently sitting in state banks.

Rhode Island received the funds in September as part of the federal CARES act. Mr. Rulli said that money still sits in the state coffers and those who want some of it will have to go through an RFP application process. He believes it would make more sense, and would be fairer and quicker, to spread the funds across the state based on population or other data. But he has had little luck making headway on the matter, one he says is good example of an over-complicated process run by bureaucrats who aren't in tune with constituents' needs.

"Now we're all competing with each other" for those funds, he said. "They don't understand what small businesses are experiencing. We're measuring these things in minutes and hours, not days and weeks."

As local officials wait, he said, more small businesses are slipping through the cracks.

Adapting
One of those cracks has almost made it to the front stoop of 155 Water St., where Warren Town Council president Keri Cronin, who also serves as co-president of Discover Warren, operates her boutique DISH.

Ms. Cronin and her mother have run the business for 17 years, and before 2020 they never closed out a year with fewer sales than the previous year. That streak will end this year, she said.

"We will probably finish out our year in the 40 percent down range."

Dealing with drastically reduced walk-ins has required Ms. Cronin to be flexible. With her mother staying home, she now tries to work with customers who would prefer to shop by private appointment, is doing more phone work and recently set up a website to give the shop a broader voice. On Tuesday, she was expected to hold a work session with a friend who is helping her expand her Social Media presence.

"Now I'm just doing my best just to keep the store open and offer every sort of accommodation to help people buy safely and feel comfortable, and then encourage my customer base and that of Discover Warren to support all local business. I know many of them are seriously struggling, just like me."

Many or most of her fellow shop and restaurant owners have been forced to adapt as well. Several restaurants, including Chomp, Bywater and The Square Peg, have for months offered their own branded take-out mixed drinks. Bywater has gone further and sold gift packages made up of local merchandise and goods, a monthly wine club, and more.

Others have completely shifted their business model.

Galactic Theater owner David Podsnap, who prior to the pandemic ran a live music venue out of the former Dan's Wigwam restaurant on Main Street, transformed the space into an ice cream parlor over the summer. Then, as the weather cooled, he re-created it once again into a restaurant serving casual fare, including gourmet flatbread pizza and more.

At Eli's Kitchen, celebrity chef Eli Dunn has taken more "micro-catering" and private chef gigs, and sees other opportunities in the future including online cooking classes and more. Still, he announced on Instagram this week that the restaurant will close for the year starting Saturday, Dec. 20.

Mr. Glynn, who worked in restaurants in northern New England before moving to Rhode Island and launching Chomp, said he hopes the type of creativity shown by Warren's business community will continue to sustain it. But he fears it won't be enough.

Without a clear plan for another round of federal stimulus payments, and with a state government that he said continues to be slow, cumbersome and out of touch, he said he is not optimistic:

"We can't wait," he said of the business community. "Getting (stimulus) money into our hands is going to take a month, at least. A lot of people don't have that much time left."

He considers Chomp fortunate in that it has a dedicated following in Warren and Providence, and is getting by despite the need for some layoffs that he says were unavoidable and painful. Still, "for every story like ours, there's other spots that are having a really hard time. They need grants and money to survive. For so many people there's housing on the line, and food insecurity.

His suggestion? Support local business whenever and wherever possible.

"Buying gift cards is a great way to help. Call in a surprise delivery for a friend. Even if you're not comfortable going out to eat yet, have something delivered (or) pick it up."

Hopeful
A snowstorm is expected to hit the region Wednesday night into Thursday, threatening to cut one precious pre-Christmas shopping day out of Christine Stulik's bottom line. There haven't been an abundance of big days in the six-month life of her shop, The Lady Next Door, at 196 Water St. But Ms. Stulik remains upbeat.

"It's going OK, it's manageable," she said. "I knew going into it that it was going to be slow, so I had low expectations."

Ms. Stulik opened the shop over the summer, after moving back to Barrington from New York City due in part to the impact the pandemic had had on her livelihood there. While she expected a long road, she thought the end would be in sight by now.

"It's been a longer haul than I thought," she said. "When I opened in June I think I didn't expect it would still be bad by the winter."

But the slow business has given her time to work on the shop and learn more about the business. And if she had opened in another time, when the business climate was great and sales were high from the start, she believes that might have created unrealistic expectations and could have hurt her in the long run.

Though it is far from ideal, the pandemic has forced her to persevere, she said:

"I keep thinking, 'If I can get through this, even if it's a year long, I'll be able to do anything afterwards.'"