First come, first served when dine-in reopens
Collierville Commissary’s regulars return in time for lunch
When Mark King and Fire Chief Buddy Billings walked in the front door of Collierville Commissary on Monday, the staff at the host stand enthusiastically greeted them with, “We had a bet going you two would be our customers today!”
The two friends and co-workers traditionally have lunch every Monday at Collierville Commissary. Since the orders to close restaurant dining rooms in
March due to the coronavirus pandemic, the two have been picking up takeout and enjoying their weekly lunch in parks around Collierville. They both were excited to be back in the dining room at one of their favorite restaurants.
“We have been waiting for the restaurants to reopen,” King said. “We are ecstatic we can get a fabulous meal today.”
Collierville Commissary and its sister restaurant, Germantown Commissary, were among the restaurants that chose to reopen their dining rooms Monday.
Since Thursday’s announcement that restaurants’ dining rooms could reopen May 4, Walker Taylor has been working full-speed ahead to get his restaurants back open.
“At some point you have to jump into the deep end of the swimming pool,” Taylor said as he acknowledged how the first restaurants to reopen carry the burden of doing things right to keep the industry’s good reputation.
Monday lunch
I was among the diners who visited the popular barbecue spot in Collierville on Monday.
That morning, Taylor was standing at the front door of his restaurant to welcome guests. The restaurant was spicand-span. It almost seemed like a normal (pre-coronavirus) day at this restaurant, except that the host and wait staff wore masks and had on gloves.
When our server, Lisa Walker, brought the food to our table, she stopped and turned back to say how appreciative she was that we had come out to eat.
“I haven’t waited on a table in almost two months,” she said. “I can’t tell you how nice it is to see people in here.”
Walker, who has worked for the company for close to four years, has been one of the team members who has worked in the restaurant throughout the dining room shutdown. She said they have been busy with drive-thru and takeout orders, but that it wasn’t the same for her or her teammates without customers in the dining room.
One thing customers may notice when they sit down in a Commissary dining room is that the checkered table clothes are gone. Taylor removed them because he was concerned about having one more thing for his staff to have to disinfect between customers. Menus have always been under glass overlays on the tables — so printing disposable paper menus was one thing he didn’t have to do.
As we enjoyed our ribs and barbecue sandwiches, we soon realized the roll of paper towels that is normally on the table was gone. Barbecue is called fingerlickin’-good because it’s a messy thing to eat. Because a roll of paper towels falls under the list of “communal” items like salt and pepper shakers, we had to ask for extra napkins. An item that Walker said Taylor had to order extra of just for this reason.
Also missing from the table were sugar packets and hot sauce. “We started serving ketchup in 2-ounce ramekins awhile ago,” Taylor said. “So now we will serve extra barbecue sauce the same way. I did order packets of hot sauce though.”
Getting ready
Taylor said business has been down 65% at Collierville Commissary and 75% at Germantown Commissary since his dining rooms closed.
Business from his drive-thru window at the Collierville restaurant has been busier than ever; but that hasn’t made up the loss from having his dining rooms closed.
He had laid off close to 70% of his staff at both restaurants. Over the weekend, he asked all his employees to come back to work. Only one declined, and it was because she didn’t have childcare because schools were out. He was relieved because on Friday he was concerned having employees return to work would be one of his biggest obstacles to reopening.
Last Wednesday, someone had tipped off Taylor that the announcement to reopen restaurants was coming any day. Because his major delivery day is on Friday, he had his staff go ahead and place an order just like they would if they were fully up and running. “I told them to place the order on Wednesday afternoon even though they don’t usually order until Thursdays. I wanted us to be first in line for ingredients.”
Taylor is concerned food suppliers, which have reduced inventory since restaurant business has been down, may have a hard time getting ingredients in stock. “I worry about the logistics problems our purveyors will have getting ingredients as everyone starts to reopen.”
On Friday, Taylor had received everything he needed to offer the full menu at both restaurants. But he said he won’t be surprised if over the coming weeks he may be out of an item or two.
Luckily, Taylor did not have to do much work to get his dining rooms in order. Unlike some restaurants that had turned their dining rooms upside down to accommodate to-go orders, his had remained intact. In addition to removing table clothes, replacing menus and removing all service items, all they had to do was clean and sanitize. “Things had gotten a bit dusty in some places,” he said.
On Friday, Taylor said, “I have no idea what we are going to do on Monday.”
Monday’s lunch service at Collierville Commissary was not what he had expected. In addition to our table, King and Billings were his only other table of diners, although a line for the drive-thru snaked into the parking lot and a handful of customers walked in to pick up takeout orders.
Taylor said he is hopeful that business will pick up throughout the week. “I am hoping dinner will be better. None of the big offices in the neighborhood, like Fedex or Orgill Brothers, have any employees at work so those people are not going out to lunch like they normally do.”
Taylor said he gets teary-eyed thinking of all his customers who have supported his two restaurants throughout the pandemic.