Restaurants using ‘guerrilla tactics’ to help stay afloat
Pandemic closures have created an ‘economic nightmare’
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
And these are desperate times for many entrepreneurs operating restaurants and bars in Waterloo Region who have been seriously affected by the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19. Thompson Tran opened The Wooden Boat Food Company in Kitchener almost two years ago and has developed a loyal clientele.
But when the pandemic closed all bars and restaurants, he had to lay off his half-dozen employees and rethink his whole business.
He’s providing curbside takeout two nights a week, and has pared down his menu so that he doesn’t have to carry inventory that might not get sold. He’s managing the business and the orders, doing all the cooking, taking care of his two kids, and now he’s building a deck to expand his seating capacity once he’s allowed to reopen.
“I’m back where I was two years ago,” he said. “I’m doing absolutely everything.”
He hopes the deck will help him cope with physical distancing rules that would otherwise limit the seating at his restaurant to about four people, once he’s allowed to reopen. He’s expanding his product line, and hopes to open a chef’s garden selling herbs and other produce. “This is guerrilla tactics, to make sure we stay afloat. I’ve got to do what I can. I’ve got a family. I’ve got a mortgage.”
Many restaurants have not been able to weather the storm. Closures include the Crossroads family restaurant in Elmira, Chainsaw karaoke bar, Timeless Café and KickOff sports bar in Waterloo, Legacy Bakery in Kitchener and the Village Well pub in Hespeler.
Even large, well-established eateries have been dealt a body blow. Bingemans employs more than 500 people at peak times in its many hospitality enterprises, which include bowling venues, a restaurant, waterpark, camping, events and catering. The company’s staff complement sank to as few as 28 people, though employees are gradually being brought back in, said president Mark Bingeman.
He estimates revenues are down at least 90 per cent — corporate, fundraising and wedding catering has dried up, and most venues remain shut. While some costs like leases or property taxes can be deferred, at some point those bills will need to be paid, Bingeman said. “There’s no question that the debt load that all businesses, small and medium, face are going to be extremely significant.”
Like Tran, Bingemans is getting creative to find new ways to generate revenue. It has new created a line of “at home” catering products and “celebration boxes,” for instance.
Casa Rugantino in Kitchener has reverted, for now, to a family-run affair, with owner Shelly Trotta working with her two daughters and a niece to fill takeout dinner orders.
“Definitely it’s been hard, to be honest,” she said. “We’re working really hard.” And having to lay off valued employees has been really difficult, she said.
She’s focused on survival. “All I really want is to be able to pay my rent and keep my name out there.”
The industry faces double uncertainty — when establishments will be allowed to open, and what restrictions they will face that could lead to higher costs and lower revenues. Despite that uncertainty, Bingemans is already planning for how it can alter events like Oktoberfest and its Halloween-themed Screampark.
“This is where the entrepreneurship comes out,” Bingeman said. “We can’t be stuck with how things were in the past. Now is the time for creativity and for ingenuity.”
Restaurateurs are supporting each other through things like peer-to-peer chat groups, said Chris Farrell, manager of the Waterloo Region Small Business Centre, helping each other access supplies or staff, or figure out the logistics of preorders and takeout.
Cambridge, like other cities, is looking to speed up patio applications and easing rules for things like patio fencing. It is surveying businesses — large and small — to get a better handle on how the pandemic has affected them, what supports were useful and what other help they might need, said Trevor McWilliams, manager of business development at the city. He’s urging businesses to fill out the survey so the city can be as helpful as possible. The survey is available at engagewr.ca/ business-outreach-program.
“We absolutely must help the small businesses as best we can,” said McWilliams.
With ongoing limits on tourism and travel, local support will be a key factor in business survival. “Support within Waterloo Region will help get all of us through to the other side of this economic nightmare,” Bingeman said.