'I cry every morning': Delfina owner heartbroken over closing restaurants, laying off workers

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On Tuesday night, a line of more than 100 people wound from the door of Delfina restaurant on 18th Street in San Francisco's Mission District.

Waitstaff, cooks, dishwashers and other workers from a thriving restaurant business built by Craig and Annie Stoll waited for their last paycheck amid a mass shutdown of all restaurants in the city to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Restaurants are allowed to stay open for take-out, and the Stolls' pizzerias are offering this service.

"We wanted them all to meet in one location so Craig and I could personally hand their checks to them," Annie said through tears over the phone. "They’re family. It was really difficult. They mean the world to us. That was the most difficult part. Every day we’re in this crazy tornado. We closed Locanda, we closed Delfina. It would take too much staffing to go to-go there."

Craig and Annie opened Delfina in 1998, and for 21 years the restaurant has dished out California-inspired Italian cuisine to a loyal base of customers who come for birthdays, anniversaries and weekly meals.

"We have customers who bring their newborn babies to Delfina and now these kids are 21 years old," Annie said. "Some of our guests' kids work at the restaurants."

Craig and Annie operate and own six restaurants. Delfina, Locanda on Mission Street, and Delfina pizzerias on 18th Street and California Street are in San Francisco. They also have pizzerias in Palo Alto and Burlingame.

This week, they made the difficult decision to close Delfina and Locanda as it isn't financially possible to offer take-out from these more traditional sit-down restaurants. The plan is to re-open Delfina when a city order to close all restaurants, except for take-out, is lifted. But Annie thinks Locanda is most likely closed for good.

The restaurants employ about 300 workers and Annie said 90% of the staff was laid off.

Two in-office staff are continuing to manage the behind-the-scenes work, and Annie said she doesn't know how she'd survive without them.

"They’re working like 12- to 14-hour days with me," she said. "I sent them an email today that started with, 'Hey warriors.' We’re trying to keep management because when we reopen they can help us rebuild. They’ve all taken significant salary cuts."

The pizzerias all remain open for take-out and each is staffed with five people. The 18th Street location is dinner-only starting at 5 p.m. and California Street, Burlingame and Palo Alto are lunch and dinner.

"I don’t know that we’re getting enough business to stay open," said Annie. "We’re putting together some dinner promotions like spaghetti and meatballs and chicken dinners for families. It’s difficult because we’re so busy dealing with everything."

She added, "We have a call with our banker at 9:30 a.m. today. We’re trying to get an SBA loan so we can stay open or re-open. We can’t re-open if we don’t have funding."

Annie said the community response to the closure has been huge. "We’re getting so many beautiful notes from past employees, saying how Delfina changed their lives, how they met their best friend there," she said. "I’m getting beautiful notes from our guests. I cry every morning because I open my email to these incredible letters."

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Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.