The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
‘IT’S GO TIME’
Owner says Dodie’s Dockside Restaurant in hotel ready to open
After delays for inspections, then a pandemic shutdown, Lorain’s newest eatery will open its doors June 4.
Dodie’s Dockside is located in the lobby of the Ariel Broadway Hotel, 301 Broadway in Lorain.
It is the creation of Tim Smith and Jamie Porrello, a husband and wife team from Avon Lake, who have planned their own restaurant for more than two years.
“Everything’s in, now I’m just bringing the inventory in and we’re making the food,” Smith said. “It’s go time.”
The restaurant has been rearranged to create adequate distances between diners to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“Everything in here is six feet apart — how does it look?” Smith asked. “People are really happy when they come in, they’re like, there’s a lot of space in here. They feel very comfortable coming in. We’re pretty much ready to go.”
With the space in the hotel lobby, the restaurant’s seating capacity dropped from 150 to 110, Smith said.
With the sliding front doors, it’s possible to walk in and get to a table without touching anything.
The final days of planning included staff training, with Smith guiding servers on wine varieties and food pairings.
“Everything’s in, now I’m just bringing the inventory in and we’re making the food. It’s go time.” — Tim Smith, co-owner of Dodie’s Dockside Restaurant in the Ariel Broadway Hotel
He encouraged them to enjoy their samples, be confident and have fun while providing good service for customers.
The group was waiting for some dishes from Brian Whalen, executive chef.
“We’re going to do everything we can to still provide the same level of dining experience that we always intended on,” Smith said. “Just changing how we go about doing it now that we have to.
“But, we’re not compromising any of our standards of service or expectations. We want people to come and enjoy the meal as if nothing ever happened.”
In March, Smith said he could not wait to be open.
Then, like so many other restaurants, bars and service businesses, the coronavirus pandemic brought business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders.
Smith described a number of factors that influenced the restaurant since the middle of March.
“It was scary,” he said. When the restaurant’s final health inspection was delayed a week in March, Smith said he put off buying inventory for the restaurant.
If Dodie’s Dockside had opened a week earlier,
Smith said he would have paid for food and supplies that likely would have gone to waste during the pandemic shutdown.
Being a new shop in town, no one knew the restaurant or its menu, so it would have been difficult to develop carryout service, he said.
“I don’t want to say I would have failed, because I don’t ever like to think I would have failed,” Smith said. “But it would have been entirely different.
“It’s a huge challenge now. It was a huge challenge before anything ever even happened.”
Because the restaurant was not open yet, Dodie’s Dockside did not qualify for any federal aid for small businesses.
Although the circumstances were trying, Smith said he knows other business owners also face the same challenges due to the COVID-19 shutdown and reopening.
During the pandemic shutdown, Smith and his stepfather also survived a rollover truck crash when another vehicle struck theirs while making a trip to Columbus.
Although they suffered some scratches and bruises, he said the two walked away generally unhurt.
“I’m not going to stop, though, at anything,” Smith said. “People are excited; people are coming in.”