$350 Billion Won’t Save America’s Small Businesses
The coronavirus could very well make your favorite corner store disappear.
This doesn’t work in a time of social distancing.
Photographer: Matt McClain/ The Washington Post via Getty ImagesMike Guerriero opened his first dessert store in 2014. Two years later, on his 25th birthday, he opened a second in Montclair, New Jersey. He sells cakes, of course, but he’s proudest of the handmade Italian ice cream he’s spent years perfecting. Naturally, he named his stores Gelati by Mike.
Broad-faced, bearded and full of energy, Mike seems at first glance more like a steakhouse guy than a gelati guy. But he came to his calling the hard way, bouncing around households and schools in Paterson, New Jersey, before an apprenticeship in a local gelateria opened his eyes: Great gelati filled people with joy. “No matter what side you pick, at best you can only make about half the country happy,” he notes. “Ice cream is one of the very few things that’s still bipartisan, something we can all agree on.”