Mount Pleasant’s main street is lined with businesses. | Getty Images After weeks of protests in Minnesota centered on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportations and the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, student organizers at the University of Minnesota called for a “national shutdown” on Friday, January 30, with “No work. No school. No shopping.” Local activists in D.C. endorsed the general strike, with plenty of flyers being disseminated to small businesses asking them to close on Friday. A few D.C. restaurants, cafes, and other food-related businesses did decide to close in support of the national shutdown, including beloved Petworth dive Snappy’s Small Bar, food-focused Mount Pleasant bookstore Bold Fork Books, Park View coffee shop Doubles DC, Lost Sock Roaster’s two cafes, and local tea and boba chain Spot of Tea. Snappy’s explained the decision in an Instagram post on Wednesday, saying “our small business alone may not move the needle and missing a busy Friday night during a slow month definitely impacts us, but together with people across the country hopefully we can make a greater impact.” A strong showing of restaurant owners and workers in New York joined the cause, too. It was difficult timing for many businesses to shut their doors, with the usual slow January season and closures earlier in the week after the heavy snowstorm, so more businesses instead opted to donate a portion of their profits during the strike to local organizations that support immigrants. Thirteen businesses in Mount Pleasant came together to donate a portion of their combined Friday profits to Ayuda, a nonprofit that offers legal, mental health, and language access services for low-income immigrants in D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. Those businesses include wine shop and Mediterranean market Nido, a Beau Thai location, taco spot La Tejana, fermentation-obsessed Ellē, and speakeasy OKPB. The massive neighborhood action was a collaborative idea that came together in a group chat with a few local business owners, according to Each Peach Market co-owner Emily Friedberg. She and her business partner helped to collect the funds and donate the set aside profits on Monday, February 2. Friedberg told Eater in an email that the Mount Pleasant shops, restaurants, and bars raised over $9,000 for Ayuda on Friday and the nonprofit told them that 36 other businesses were also inspired to donate a portion of their profits. “We’re all pretty energized by our collective action and want to keep working together on things like this,” Friedberg wrote. Nido co-owner Thea Merl tells Eater that the Northwest neighborhood has always been targeted by ICE officials and “between us and other small businesses, we have had to watch employees get snatched off the corner on their way to work,” so they wanted to come together to contribute to an organization that “has been doing reputable work for a long time” to support the local immigrant community. She also didn’t feel that “it would be an act of good faith to close, because now we’re taking money out of our own employees’ pockets,” especially after closing for three days due to the snowy weather. Outside of Mount Pleasant, Taqueria Xochi, Sook, Maydan, Medina, Amparo Fondita, and many other restaurants also made contributions to Ayuda. There were plenty of restaurants that donated money to other nonprofits and funds that support immigrants. El Tamarindo donated a portion of sales to Amica Center (supplying national legal support), Hill East Burger contributed 10 percent of profits to the Central American Resource Center, and Republic Cantina donated 10 percent of sales to a local migrant mutual aid fund. ...read more read less