Restaurants band together for survival
Many restaurant owners in Chester County are getting creative as they hope to weather the upcoming winter season during the raging pandemic.
Ron’s Original Bar & Grille, like many other restaurants, are changing focus to keep their staff employed and the customers safe. They adapted to the new rules and regulations handed down by the government. They made changes to their facilities, policies and procedures to better service customers. And they are constantly overcoming this ever changing situation, day by day. What’s more, is that they’ve even gone as far as to band together with other local restaurants to help each other make it through these tough and trying times.
When COVID-19 began to impact Chester County, restaurants were ordered to close their doors to dinein customers. Ron’s quickly jumped into action for the sake of their customers and staff and introduced their new Curbside Pickup service. Realizing they needed to do more, they turned to closing their doors completely, in order to regroup and come back better than ever.
Restaurant owners in Chester County cleared out their inventory by having an astoundingly successful sidewalk sale, then took to brainstorming sessions for nearly 2 weeks to develop a plan that would meet and exceed customer expectations.
As quarantine progressed, they continued to follow through on every
mandate and recommendation handed down from the CDC and Health Departments. From apps that track the restaurant’s cleanliness to patented floor to ceiling sanitizing systems; restaurants maintained impeccable cleaning and sanitization standards, provided safe social distancing protocols and has done their very best to ensure everyone in and around the establishment feels safe.
Following the prohibition on dine-in eating, many restaurants like Ron’s banded together and overcame yet another hurdle. In just four days’ time they took the governor’s newest mandate and made the best of it with an all new outdoor dining experience. Complete with a heating system, full, custom made bar and TVs, it is the complete Ron’s Original package. All while sticking to their commitment of maintaining a clean and safe atmosphere for their customers.
They’ve adapted. They’ve changed. And they are still overcoming.
On Oct. 24, Ron’s took to closing their doors, once again, when they were stricken with their worst fear, a positive case of COVID-19. In an already declining industry due to the pandemic, this was every restaurant owner’s worst nightmare. Or so they thought …
Once word began to spread of the Ron’s closure, the local restaurant community jumped into action. The kind folks at Epicurean Garage turned their ever popular #GarageGivesBack campaign into a fundraising effort to help Ron’s make it through their shutdown, something they had done just weeks prior for Limoncello in Chester Springs as well.
With an anonymous donor backing them, the Garage set forth in the their mission, to donate $25 for every take-out and delivery order to purchase gift cards from Ron’s. Those gift cards would later be donated to extremely deserving school teachers and faculty.
The result? The Epicurean Garage ended up raising over $7,000 in funds, close to 300 gift cards but it didn’t end there …
A few weeks later, the Garage was faced with same unfortunate circumstance. For not the first but second time this year, they closed their doors to clean, sanitize and regroup after having a positive case of COVID-19 on their staff. Not being the ungrateful type, Ron’s jumped immediately into action with a fundraiser of their own, raising another several thousand dollars to help their friends make it through the shutdown.
Banding together and fighting for each other is what’s helping the local restaurant community survive.