NEW YORK — "This December I will have been working at Joe Allen for 10 years," says waiter KC Comeaux.

"I started here as a waiter in 1998. I didn't know anything about Broadway," adds Mary Hattman.

Twenty-three years and a whole lot of Broadway later, Mary is now the general manager of Joe Allen, the Restaurant Row mainstay. This last year and a half has been incredibly difficult on the restaurant industry, especially for establishments in the Theater District who are missing their usual theatergoing audience.

"When the shutdown happened, that weekend all the reservation just plummeted," says Comeaux. "Like there's a lot of cancellations, especially since, you know, Broadway was closed. But that's when I figured we would also have to shut down."

"What I really thought is we would stay open: Broadway might be closed for a few weeks and we would be really slow," says Hattman. "But no way did we think that when the whole COVID thing happened that we were going to be shut down for all this time."

"Our business is very reliant on the Broadway crowd and traffic," adds Comeaux. "You know, of course we have amazing regulars in this place, but just not enough to sustain I think."

"So we had to wait until they were okay with indoor dining. And then they opened indoor dining at 25% and we thought, 'Okay, let's try it.' So we do it for about a month and then we realized we're bleeding money," says Hattman. "So then we decided after that we cannot reopen until these limitations are gone. Joe Allen the restaurant and then Joe Allen the person's memory, were so glued to Broadway I really do feel like we're almost like a clubhouse to that community. And if Broadway is not doing well, we're not doing well. So yes, it's a huge challenge."

But just as opening west of Eighth Avenue was a risky move back in 1965, Joe Allen is taking a risk once again: Reopening to support the community it loves as Broadway comes back.

"I was never worried Joe Allen wouldn't open it," says Comeaux. "It's such an institution. Hopefully it's a sense of normalcy that we're coming back."

"Joe passing away this year too was really hard. So I'm just glad that we're reopening just for his memory," adds Hattman. "Being back at Joe Allen is home."