BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — It’s called the Bakersfield Local Restaurant Group and it’s helped dozens of restaurants throughout the city.
This is a group that was pieced together by six people, none of whom had any background in the food industry.
But their concern for local restaurants pushed them to create a space to help promote all restaurants to the community.
“The day we shut down and nobody knew what was going on we were at a loss but all of a sudden this group popped up and they were the Bakersfield Restaurant Group and they were there to support the restaurants,” Denise Bell an employee at Sorella Ristorante Italiano said.
The group started off just as an idea to help others but it caught attention and fast when no one knew what to do.
“Once they started this page it grew, I’m not kidding 20,000 people were on this page and everybody was going to this source to find out what’s going on,” Bell said.
Sorella Ristorante Italiano is an Italian restaurant and like many others, was facing difficult times during the pandemic and they turned to the restaurant group for help.
Right now, another challenge for restaurants is inflation.
Kristin Visser is one of the leaders of the restaurant group and says the effects of inflation can be seen by the increase in prices and the change in portion sizes.
“If we didn’t have them, I truly truly mean this. So many restaurants in this town would have gone down,” Bells said.
Visser says they plan on keeping up the group even though things are getting back to normal. She said, the page has become a favorite place to promote menus and special events as well as customers to promote their favorite places to eat.
