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By Doyal D’angelo
Cronkite News

PARIS –  The idea of the Olympics leaves many people imagining a mega-event with flocks of people from all over the world participating in cultural exchange, contributing to a flourishing economy and filling up restaurants and bars.

Yet as many tourists and Parisians have discovered, the Olympics have not brought the expected amount of customer traffic that local businesses wanted. As a large number of Parisians have left the city to vacate the Olympics altogether, businesses like historic cafe Le Sarah Bernhardt hoped to capitalize on the event, yet this opportunity for increased business didn’t material for many.

“We didn’t think the Olympic games were like this,” said Nicolas Vernhes, general manager at Le Sarah Bernhardt. “We’ve been waiting for a lot of tourists and they’re not here.”

Downtown Phoenix is familiar with that situation. During the 2023 Super Bowl, some restaurants and bars said they lost business because of street closures due to downtown events. Other said the events were so spread out in the Valley that out-of-town guests weren’t in a single concentrated area.

Le Sarah Bernhardt is a historically significant and aesthetically pleasing restaurant that has been connected to the late French stage actress of the same name, and the Theatre de la Ville, which opened in 1862, next door for well over a hundred years. 

In the lead-up to the 2024 Olympic Games, the restaurant had to close down for nine days because law enforcement barricaded the streets of Chatelet. 

“When you run a restaurant, the question is not how I can make more money, it’s how can I not lose too much money,” said Julie Vernhes, general manager of Le Sarah Bernhardt.

In an effort to secure the streets of Paris and to make sure no terrorist attacks would manifest before and after the opening ceremony, the local law enforcement made QR codes a requirement to step foot on the streets and premises of local businesses in central Paris between July 18-27.

Only specific people, including employees, business owners and locals, were allotted QR codes, which caused issues of availability and accessibility. The risk of running a restaurant that was physically barricaded posed too much of a challenge. 

David Reithoffer, a frequent patron of Le Sarah Bernhardt, understood the issue for local businesses clearly. 

“If you’re visiting Paris for the Olympics, and you’re walking in the neighborhood, you can’t just say, ‘Oh, that looks like a nice cafe, let’s go’ because you don’t have the QR code,” Reithoffer said. 

Since law enforcement did not notify Julie and Nicolas about the security operation, the couple were surprised to wake up to their restaurant practically unavailable to customers.

If the couple were notified of an official closure, the government would have been required to provide stimulus payment after three days. 

Ultimately, this security detail forced the owners to shut down the restaurant to prevent massive losses. 

“We have employees, we have to pay charges, all of the vegetables and wine,” Julie said. “So it was a big impact on our revenue.”

Weighing the pros and cons of stopping business for this period resulted in what would be classified as a voluntary closure, but the barricades and QR codes essentially forced the action. Julie and Nicolas determined that paying for electricity and labor were too high of a cost, which coincided with the loss of fresh produce and goods. 

Despite the challenges, Jordan Firmin, a server at Le Sarah Bernhardt, said he enjoyed his time off and spent time with his family so the closure didn’t affect him too much.

Circumstantially, the impact of a business closure depends on the person, but for business owners, the effect is always clear and detrimental. 

As COVID-19 and renovations are sure to have challenged the financial status of the restaurant, it has stayed upright through it all. The Vernhes are staying positive and running the restaurant the only way they know how, which is together. 

They don’t like the expression “You play, you win. You play, you lose.” 

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn,” Julie said.