When Utah service workers lost jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, actor, bar owner and Utah transplant Ty Burrell helped lead an effort to send them tips in support.
“We’re back,” he announced Thursday, “in a sequel that nobody wanted.”
Burrell appears in a video the Downtown Alliance posted on social media Thursday afternoon to urge donations for bar and restaurant workers who lost jobs in a Monday fire on Salt Lake City’s Main Street.
In the video, Burrell appears with Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Downtown Alliance Executive Director Dee Brewer to call attention to the alliance’s Main Street Fire Employee Assistance Fund.
As of Thursday afternoon, the Downtown Alliance announced the fund had raised $78,850 in 36 hours. The alliance has said it will start distributing money to affected service workers, through their employers, as soon as Tuesday.
The fund aims to raise $500,000 to help some 200 workers at three bars — Whiskey Street, London Belle and White Horse — and the Los Tapatios restaurant, all along the 300 South block of Salt Lake City’s Main Street. The four businesses were destroyed by a fast-moving fire that started in London Belle’s kitchen Monday night.
Burrell, known as the star of the sitcom “Modern Family,” and his business partners own two adjoining downtown Salt Lake City bars, Bar X and Beer Bar. They also own the Cotton Bottom Inn in Holladay and The Eating Establishment in Park City.
Burrell jokes about the “sequel,” and Mendenhall promises that “one day, you’ll see the three of us get together when something good has happened.”
Organizers at several events have announced they are raising money for the employees. The nightclub Sky announced it was giving over its Thursday nights to Dave Sigala, aka DJ Dirty Dave, who has headlined London Belle’s Latin Thursdays. A portion of the proceeds would “go directly towards supporting the London Belle staff, and helping rebuild this beloved space,” according to Sky’s Instagram account.
The people behind “Main Street III,” a fashion-and-music show set for Friday night at the Eccles Theater, 111 S. Main, announced earlier this week that the show would raise money for the Downtown Alliance’s fund. David Tran, co-owner of London Belle, was expected to speak at the event.