“It's like signing a deal with the devil. He’s considered launching another GoFundMe fundraiser, but he says he’d rather take out more loans, effectively consolidating all that he owes. But it's very much a local, small business.” “We are a true, forgive the term, but mom-and-pop, even though I'm a single father. “We don't make a half million dollars a year, we don't make half of that a year, we don't even make a quarter of that a year,” he explains. That’s because the bar is making just enough cash to cover daily operating costs. Right now, Alpuche says he’s making minimum payments on his loans, but it’s not enough to make a dent in the debt. Small businesses nationwide borrowed more than $300 billion in disaster relief loans to weather COVID-related lockdowns, and they’re on the hook to pay it back.
It’s not just the Alpuche and the Redline. We're gonna take a 30-year loan out, I'll figure out a way to pay it so we survive.’” Between back rent, water, power, and other bills, he owes $487,000 – far more than he can imagine actually paying back.Īlpuche took out PPP and disaster relief loans, but he’s learned that some of them come with a price: “You think a disaster relief loan is something that's like, ‘Yay, it's gonna help you, you don't have to pay interest,’” he says.īut no: “The interest is higher than a mortgage, the payments are as long as the mortgage. According to owner Oliver Alpuche, he’s facing a mountain of debt that he accumulated during that long closure. Bartenders sling drinks, emcees host drag performances, and customers party in a safe space for LA’s LGBTQ+ community.īut the Redline has a financial hangover. Hanging out at downtown LA gay bar Redline, you’d think 15 months of pandemic closure was a distant memory, now that bars have been reopened for almost a year.