nothin Senator: Ricky D’s Has The PPP Recipe | New Haven Independent

Senator: Ricky D’s Has The PPP Recipe

Paul Bass Photo

Richard B gets a Covid-safe Ricky D welcome on Winchester Wednesday.

Ricky Evans had another visit from a U.S. senator Wednesday — this time to offer some inspiration for how to help Black-owned businesses survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

The visit took place at Ricky D’s Rib Shack on Winchester Avenue in Science Park.

Owner and chef Ricky Evans has lost track of how many times elected officials have popped in for press events at his popular barbecue spot. Suffice it to say that Wednesday’s visitor, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, was no stranger. The state’s other U.S. senator, Chris Murphy, has been known to stop by, too.

There’s a reason for that: Much discussion of how to create jobs and build up urban communities has focused on how government can help nurture Black and Hispanic-owned businesses. Evans offers a success story. He started with a food truck. A city entrepreneurship program helped him develop a business plan to grow. He opened the brick-and-mortar restaurant in 2016. He moved to his brick-and-mortar space, devised and marketed new sauces, and now … has so far weathered Covid-19, in part with help from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

That’s why Blumenthal visited Wednesday. He held an event with Evans to show how PPP can make a difference. Noting that the vast majority of federal Covid-19 business relief has bypassed the Black community, Blumenthal vowed to push for more PPP funding and to work with people statewide to funnel some of the remaining $130 billion to more minority-owned businesses, including by linking them with nontraditional lenders.

Ricky D’s is a great American success story,” Blumenthal declared. Ricky had a dream. He had a truck. Now he has a restaurant. He’s keeping going.”

Blumenthal called it shameful” that 41 percent of Black-owned businesses across the country have shut their doors since the pandemic began. He faulted the federal government for failure to send aid like PPP to those who need it most.

Meanwhile, Blumenthal noted, not only is Ricky Evans hanging on. He’s ahead of where he was.”

Like other restaurateurs, Evans had to stop offering dine-in meals when the pandemic hit in March. He continued offering to-go meals and deliveries through Uber Eats. The chairs have remained stacked in a corner, with no dine-in resumption.

He managed to keep his five employees on staff, though with reduced hours, as business dropped 25 percent in March and April from the same period in 2019.

Evans outside Ricky D’s: “We’re paying the bills. We’re current on everything.”

He kept plugging. He applied for PPP, and collected $26,000 he said. Meanwhile, he hooked up with city government’s Food System Policy Division’s Square Meals program to deliver 55 meals a week to asymptomatic Covid-19-negative homeless people in hotels and isolation centers. He offered a discount while still bringing in revenue to ramp up.

Overall business rose 5 percent in May from 2019, then 35 percent in June.

Now Evans has nine people working. July has seen a slowdown. But he’s pressing ahead.

And New Haven, from the loyal customers to the people making policy decisions, are rooting for him.

Nate Blair picks up a lunch order from Jasper Hill and Myles Settle before the senator’s arrival.

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