One the industries seeing its bottom line affected the most by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is the restaurant business, which has been unable to have guests dine in at their establishments since March 17.
A pair of unique eateries on Franklin Street, like many other restaurants across the nation, have been forced to adapt their businesses in order to stay afloat.
Carolina Brewery owner Robert Poitras and the owner of Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews, Jamie Sanchez, both spoke with 97.9 The Hill recently about what they are doing to make it through this current crisis.
Like many places, Carolina Brewery has shifted its business to revolve around to-go orders distributed by curbside pick-up—but those orders are only available from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Chapel Hill.
The brewery is also only offering a limited menu to help keep food costs down. In addition, Poitras said they are partnered with apps like GrubHub, Takeout Central and Uber Eats in order to facilitate delivery for food orders.
What’s new, however, is that Carolina Brewery has just launched a home delivery service for their beer, using an app called Heartland Guest to make it easier for folks to order their favorites.
“We’re seeing some regulars come back,” Poitras said. “They know we’re open. But it has not been easy. It’s been very difficult on our staff.”
Poitras has had to lay off over 100 employees—keeping only people deemed as essential, key managers. These managers—including himself—have often found themselves getting hands-on in the kitchen, cooking food themselves.
For those that were laid off, a staff relief fund was created using proceeds from online gift card sales.
Carolina Brewery has also gotten involved with a new initiative involving many local restaurants called Feed the Fight Chapel Hill, where it puts together pre-packaged meals and delivers them to the frontline workers at UNC Hospitals while still adhering to social distancing guidelines.
“They’ve got a tent set up there,” Poitras said. “Very safe and efficient. So, we’ll pull up and distribute the meals to the staff out there at outside tables, then they’ll distribute it from there. Nobody has to go in to the hospital.”
On the other end of Franklin Street, Epilogue—an independent bookstore that also sells chocolates, coffee and beer—made the decision to close its store and move to an online-only business.
Prior to the closing, the shop had 23 employees including its two co-owners.
In this time of need, however, Epilogue has not only adapted its business model, but is also working with other local vendors.
The store is offering a flat three-dollar fee for shipping on all book orders, while also putting together unique “surprise boxes” that are sold at different price points. These boxes include everything from new and used books, custom greeting cards, chocolate, toffee, pottery and candles—all sourced from numerous different places in the Triangle, including Escazu Chocolates in Raleigh.
“This idea came about just to be able to interact with the audience a little bit more, and offer them something special from Epilogue,” Sanchez said. “We did not want to just make it about ourselves though. We wanted to make sure we’re supporting other vendors.
“It’s just our little way of keeping things going for us and keeping things going for other vendors around the Triangle,” he added.
While it’s difficult to say how sustainable these efforts are in the long run for these two establishments—and others which are similar—these kinds of innovations have certainly rallied the community together in the meantime.
“It’s really affected us and our employees,” Sanchez said. “We did have to move quickly to move online, but the community—I tell you what—they really support us with their messages and with their orders, of course. If you need a community to keep you going, keep you positive, Chapelboro is it.”
Note: 97.9 The Hill has been Chapel Hill and Orange County’s daily source for free local news since 1953. Please consider making a contribution to continue supporting important local journalism like this.
