Williamsburg’s push to raise meals taxes threatens the independent restaurants that are important to the city’s tourism economy, the siblings that run the Fat Canary and Cheese Shop say.
Mary Ellen Power Rogers and Thomas Power Jr. joined other restaurateurs who descended on the Williamsburg City Council meeting last week to push back on plans to increase the meals tax by another 1.5%. The siblings, along with their sister Cathy, are the second-generation owners of the Williamsburg food group that began with a wine and cheese shop founded by their parents in Newport News more than 50 years ago.
They met with us late last week in the Fat Canary’s dining room to explain how local independent restaurants are suffering from a combination of rising prices, employee shortages and lack of affordable downtown parking for their workers.
“The Fat Canary this time of year should be open seven nights a wee…