Economic Development Committee cited precedent and the past loan payment history of Good To Go Jamaican Cuisine
By Bob Seidenberg
A request from the owner of Howard Street’s Good To Go Jamaican restaurant for city assistance to rebuild after a devastating Nov. 29 fire failed to win initial support from members of the Economic Development Committee (EDC) Wednesday.
Lacking a quorum, committee members didn’t take a formal vote on owner Lenice Levy’s request for a $120,000 loan to support building repairs. But a number of members, while expressing sympathy for the restaurant’s plight, said they were reluctant to approve the request, citing precedent.
“I want to see the business succeed here,” committee member Lisa Dzeikan said late in the discussion, “but from a policy viewpoint, I think we need to make a decision whether this is an appropriate use of those funds. And if we are making a decision, that this is a first-time use, then recognize that other applicants are going to come before us.”
The fire broke out at approximately 11:38 p.m. on Black Friday, according to the Evanston Fire Department’s report. Crews initiated interior firefighting operations during the blaze, including pulling down the ceiling and ventilating the restaurant’s main dining room, to bring the fire under control.
Since the early days after the fire, city officials have been working with Levy to reopen the restaurant, viewed as playing an important role in Howard Street’s revitalization, Paul Zalmezak, the city’s economic development manager, told committee members.
A ‘desperation situation’
Zalmezak said staff didn’t come to the committee on the funding request before now because of past precedent not to provide financial assistance to other businesses impacted by fires.
But with Levy reporting that her insurance company has denied her claim, “there’s kind of a desperation situation here,” he said.
“The first step was to quickly get this before the committee because we’re at a point where we need to move forward with another source — or perhaps it’s over,” he said in framing the issue. “I don’t know the answer.”
The city has not provided financial assistance to other businesses affected by fires, according to a written memo from Zalmezak, including the Pine Yard (formerly at 1033 Davis St.), 4 Suns Fresh Juice (1906 Main St.), the Locker Room (1416 Central St.) and Mayfair Beauty (751 Howard St.).
“In each case,” he wrote, “we informed the business owners that using city funds to cover uninsured losses or act as gap insurance is not considered an appropriate use of public money and could set a challenging precedent for future disaster-related funding.”
A past history of ‘missed and late payments’
Leading off discussion, Renee Feldman, the at-large business community representative on the committee, noted that last year she had brought up the potential of offering people with weather-related and potentially fire-related problems the chance to apply for grant support. The committee’s consensus at the time was that the issue was more of an insurance matter, she said.
“How is this different than what we talked about?” Feldman asked.
Second Ward Councilmember Krissie Harris, who serves on the committee, expressed concern about a history of outstanding balances and delinquencies on Good To Go’s part.
The restaurant has already received $154,149 in city assistance since announcing plans to open in 2017, Zalmezak reported in his memo.
Before the fire, Good To Go “had a number of missed and late payments, which required staff time to pursue payments,” he wrote.
The business currently owes $38,891 on another loan and hasn’t made a payment since April 2024, resulting in $15,110 in late fees. Good To Go also has smaller outstanding balances on liquor taxes, water bills and waste services, according to Zalmezak.
Going over the list, Harris said, “I love Good To Go, and I hope they can figure something out, but that’s a lot of money that’s already in default,” admitting she was “struggling” to support the request.
At the meeting, Levy acknowledged some of the inconsistent payments. She said some of the problems she’s had with past due payments were technical, with the city not having a system that could process automatic withdrawals. As far as the outstanding balance is concerned, some of that “is a result of a forbearance that businesses received during COVID,” she told the committee.
But all those things “I don’t think are unfixable,” she told committee members. “And you know, the fire really set us back.”
She called the insurance claim denial “truly a technicality” that Good To Go is fighting. That technicality “is having a verbal agreement with a cleaning company versus a written agreement,” she said. “And in this industry, it is very common for you to have a verbal contract.”
Levy told the committee that their insurance policy is $1.1 million, and that her lawyer feels the business has a strong case for winning a settlement.
Dzeikan asked how that perspective fit with a statement about the EFD investigation that Zalmezak included in his memo, which said “that the fire investigation conducted by the Evanston Fire Department revealed that the equipment was not used in an approved manner and resulted in the accidental fire.”
Levy maintained that the report she received from EFD noted the blaze was a result of an accidental grease fire, and that the issue of using equipment incorrectly never came up.
“That’s very concerning to me,” she said, “because we had permits approved by the City of Evanston, the fire department. We had the health department that came out multiple times a year, that walked through our kitchen to see every single piece of equipment that we have, and we’ve never been cited for having inappropriate equipment or using it inappropriately.”
In his memo, Zalmezak said Levy and her husband Tony have committed to supporting the revitalization of Howard Street, with Good To Go a popular destination that features live music and rooftop dining.
During the pandemic, when other restaurants shuttered fully or cut back on service, the restaurant was one of the few to use an enclosed outdoor area to stay open.
A possible alternative
During the summer season, the restaurant employees as many as 29 staff members, Zalmezak noted.
If the committee recommends that the City Council consider the loan request, he said, staff recommends “further analysis of the business/business owner’s capacity to repay the debt, considering that there is no expansion of the business.”
He said such an analysis would include a review of the business’ credit history, existing capital (including assets and savings) as well as determining the city’s ability to secure the loan with collateral — adding that action would appear unlikely, as the city would be forced to take a subordinate position to financial institutions already lending to Good To Go.
Levy, a longtime Evanston resident and a representative of the Chamber of Commerce on the Minority, Women, Disadvantage and Evanston Business Enterprises (M/W/D/EBE) Committee, said she recognized “that there’s nothing historical like this [her request] allowed. So there is a first time for everything.”
The business has “stood the test of time” and worked hard to improve the Howard Street corridor, she noted. “We haven’t been perfect — I’m not saying we’ve been perfect,” she said. But if the request is granted, “it will be a good opportunity to make a change.”
The $120,000 would allow the business to become minimally operational and safe, she said. “All our licenses are current, up to date,” she told committee members. The loan would “get the doors open, would cover payrolls.”
Moving forward, the restaurant is looking at implementing an additional concept, she said, adding that “we feel very confident that we will be able to meet our new obligations [and] maintain our previous obligations.”
Further, she said, the restaurant has plans for additional outreach to expand its footprint and generate additional revenue.
Drawing the discussion to a close, Councilmember Jonathan Nieuwsma, chairing the committee, noted the reluctance among members to accept Levy’s request.
With the group not having enough members present to constitute a quorum, “it’s not an official decision because we haven’t voted,” he told Levy.
He suggested Levy work with staff and her councilmember to decide what her next steps will be. If there’s support to bring the request to a vote, the issue would return to the committee at its May meeting for a final determination, he said.
