ORANGE, Calif.—At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, businessman John Reed was faced with a dilemma: shut down the scheduled construction of his new restaurant in Orange County, California, or take a risk and see it through, despite looming challenges. Construction of his new Bosscat Kitchen location in the city of Orange was slated to begin in March 2020—around the time of the state’s first lockdown. Reed made the decision to postpone—at first to late September, then to October. Then, in the midst of the pandemic, construction finally began. “We were struggling like everybody else to make sure that we could survive this thing. In addition to that, we were in the midst of building a new restaurant, which required capital,” Reed told The Epoch Times. “So there was a lot of dialogue with the landlord and the general contractor and myself about pushing out our timelines.” Five months later, most …