Staying alive

Restaurants were hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year.

Last year as the pandemic began spreading, Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered restaurants to close their doors to in-person business effective March 17, and doors stayed closed until early May.

Surviving the closure and navigating the restrictions for reopening presented a whole set of challenges to area restaurants.

Some pivoted to delivery and to-go meals, while others stayed closed during the shutdown.

Some businesses got aid through the federal Paycheck Protection Program loans and other government assistance to help pay employees.

They all had to deal with new rules and regulations when they reopened their doors to the public.

The Union spoke with managers and owners from four area restaurants to hear their stories about the challenges they have faced over the past year.

Unc and Neph's, Washington

Dave Sorrell, owner of Unc and Neph's in Washington, would like to retire.

However, selling a restaurant during a pandemic has proved problematic.

'I'm trying to sell the darn thing,” Sorrell said. 'It's hard to sell a place like this in a pandemic.”

He acknowledged that the past year has been rough for his business.

'I don't want to get political, but if it hadn't been for government help - a PPP loan and a state grant - I wouldn't have made it,” Sorrell said. 'No way.”

During the state-mandated shutdown from mid-March to early May, Sorrell kept his employees working.

'My employees needed to keep working,” he said. 'So, I kept everybody working.”

He said that he had them doing a lot of 'busy work” like cleaning and painting during the shutdown.

'I knew the rules (of the PPP loan),” he said. 'I wanted that loan forgiven, which I did.”

When they reopened, Sorrell said he was careful to follow guidelines regarding masks, sanitizing and social distancing.

They moved around tables to create space so customers were able to social distance.

Once Unc and Neph's reopened, business was slow.

Sorrell said that his third quarter sales were down 47 percent from the same time in 2019.

Things got better with time, though.

'We were down just 8 percent in the last quarter,” Sorrell said. 'The first quarter of this year looks like it's getting close to normal.”

Restrictions have been eased, but Sorrell still is taking precautions.

'We're still using masks,” he said. 'I hope that'll end in the next month or two.”

Riverside Family Restaurant 3, Fairfield

When the governor ordered restaurants to close to in-person dining effective March 17 last year, management at Riverside Family Restaurant 3 in Fairfield made the difficult decision to completely shut down, while other restaurants began offering to-go and delivery meals.

Manager Abigail Nicholas said that they just did not feel they would make enough money with to-go and delivery orders to cover expenses.

'I feel that the to-go and delivery services wouldn't have been able to push us through that time if we would have been open,” Nicholas said. 'What I mean by that is, it wouldn't have been able to pay our payroll or the everyday running expenses that we would have had. Not being open at all, we kept the expenses to a bare minimum.”

When the governor lifted the order in early June, Riverside 3 was in a good position to reopen.

'I strongly feel that is why we were able to reopen the doors and keep them open since then,” Nicholas said.

She added that all of the staff were able to come back to work in June.

'We have a very small staff here so we did have the opportunity to keep all our staff,” she said. 'They stuck it out with us, and I appreciate them for that.”

Even though they were able to open the doors, they had to make some adjustments to how they did business.

'I would say the social distancing had a big part in the way we ran and did things for a while,” Nicholas said. 'At one point in time we have nothing, I mean nothing on the tables. That was a difficult thing to adapt too.”

She said that in normal times, they would have coffee cups, jellies and silverware on all the tables.

Some of their regular business was slow to return.

Nicholas described Riverside 3 as 'like the mum-n-pa hole-in-the-wall diner.”

'A lot of our customers, especially in the mornings, were the older generation, the generation that was being most affected by the virus,” she said. 'So for a while there the mornings were not the same.”

Business has been picking up, but Nicholas wondered if things will ever be like they used to be.

'They are slowly getting back to the way it used to be; however, I feel that it won't ever go back 100 percent,” she said. 'I hope that by the support of the community and the surrounding areas that we are able to stay open.”

Your Choice Family Restaurant, Wayland

When Sira Curfman took over the former Frontier Family Restaurant in Wayland at the beginning of August last year, she knew it would be an uphill battle.

'It was scary, and I didn't know if we would succeed,” Curfman said of taking over a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic.

Three weeks after she took over the newly re-christened Your Choice Family Restaurant, Curfman was thrown a major curveball.

'About three weeks after we opened, I caught COVID, and we had to close for two weeks,” Curfman said.

She recalled that she woke up on Monday, a day the restaurant is normally closed, 'feeling off.”

'I felt worse on Tuesdays,” she said. 'We closed, and I went to get tested. They told me it would be a couple days to get the results.”

On Wednesday, she was feeling better but decided to keep the restaurant closed until she got her test results.

'I found out Thursday that I tested positive,” Curfman said.

She kept the restaurant closed through Labor Day weekend.

When the restaurant reopened, they took extra precautions, including taking everything off the tables, using paper menus and wearing masks when they were mandated.

'Wearing a mask is really hard,” Curfman said. 'Running around as a waitress, it gets really hot.”

Business was slow when the state had restrictions in place.

Curfman said she took advantage of the slower periods to do some improvements and deep cleaning.

'Since the governor lifted the restrictions, things have gotten better,” she said. 'We're getting to a really good place.”

She credits the support from the community for keeping the business going.

'We're doing very well, despite the pandemic,” she said. 'We're in a small town with loyal customers, and we have a good relationship with them.

'We've had so much support from the community, we're in good standing.”

Kalona Brewing Company, Kalona

The governor ordered restaurants to close their doors to in-person dining effective March 17 last year.

Two weeks later, on April 1, Jeremy Hassman started his new job as general manager of Kalona Brewing Company.

'A new GM can take time under normal circumstances to acclimate and learn how things are done,” Hassman said. 'This presented a unique challenge for everyone at KBC as they helped me get up to speed while giving me the tools I needed to navigate the pandemic.”

Even before Hassman came on board, KBC had already transitioned to providing delivery and to-go orders.

Even with that business, KBC needed help.

'We were able to qualify for PPP loans during the beginning of the pandemic in order to help significantly with payroll,” Hassman said. 'We were able to keep everyone.”

Hassman said that as they prepared to reopen in May, they had to figure out how best to safely operate.

'My mindset through this was to follow guidelines set forth by the CDC, as well as local and national restaurant associations,” he said. 'As far as what I would require from my guests, I stuck with whatever regulations the state required me to follow.”

He explained that sticking to state guidelines made it clearer to guests what was required.

'That meant that I wouldn't do things like require my guests to wear masks until that mandate came down from the state,” he said. 'This helped me create clear rules for our guests to follow from a source that was trusted and hard to argue with.”

Guidelines were stricter for KBC staff.

'We have all been wearing masks from Day 1 one along with significantly increased sanitizing practices,” Hassman said. 'We also weren't afraid to quarantine our staff when necessary and went through stretches of time with very thin numbers of staff because of this.”

There were other challenges as well.

'One of the biggest things that changed how we operated from a dining room perspective was the social distancing requirements,” Hassman said. 'It was a constant game of Tetris with how we were fitting our guests into the dining room.

'We had tape lines on the floor to help us with the six-foot requirement and could move tables here and there in order to accommodate this.”

Kalona Brewing Company also put its menu online.

'We put QR codes everywhere that linked to our menu,” Hassman said. 'This helped us a ton, making less cleaning or throwing out of traditional paper menus.”

People started coming back, and Hassman credited some of the uptick in business to the brewery taking precautions seriously.

'I think we got a reputation for a business that took COVID-19 seriously and that people could feel safe while at the same time not requiring too much from guests for those that did not agree with restrictions,” Hassman said. 'It was very fine line that I feel we walked well.”

He said the biggest reason that Kalona Brewing Company has weathered the pandemic is support.

'We really couldn't have done it without the constant support from our local community and the support of those willing to still travel in order to visit us,” Hassman said. 'People are ready to get back out there, at least around here.

'I see us coming out of this very strong.”