Opening up amid adversity
The restaurant and hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit in 2020. While many businesses struggled to stay afloat, some restaurants in downtown Little Rock were able to open during the middle of a pandemic.
ROSIE’S POT & KETTLE CAFE 423 Bond Ave.
For the owners of Rosie’s Pot & Kettle Cafe in downtown, the only possible road is now up. Having opened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, on April 13, 2020, essentially, this is all they have known, and therefore, the lows of the pandemic were not as evident.
“What we like to say is this is the longest soft opening ever,” co-owner Liz Maxey said.
“We have all been in the restaurant business for over a decade, and this is nothing we have ever seen before.”
Katie McDaniel and Alisha Black-Ocken are the cafe’s other two co-owners. The restaurant was originally scheduled to open the week of St. Patrick’s Day, but Maxey said the owners had to regroup and get a new game plan that involved a to-go-only situation and not overstep their boundaries.
“We kept our overhead super low,” Maxey said. “We have been very fortunate with the support from the community. It has definitely been an experience, and we have learned a lot.”
One thing the restaurant has done is plan menu items that travel well for to-go orders, and Maxey said they don’t plan for excess food.
“Essentially, we want to run out by the end of the day and keep food costs low,” she said.
A.W. LIN’S 309 Main St.
A.W. Lin’s opened its second location in Little Rock in February of last year, on Main Street downtown, but had to close a month later in March because of the pandemic. Eventually, the restaurant was able to reopen in September, but the flow of customers has been slow, said Kelly Cappuccetti, the general manager.
“We were only open for like a month before the pandemic hit,” said Cappuccetti, who was hired as the general manager in September. “It is getting better flow each day, but the snowpocalypse didn’t help, either. … The support around downtown has been awesome. We definitely have a lot of regulars who have supported us. We would probably be out of business if it wasn’t for them.”
Cappuccetti worked with Jenny Liu, the owner, at the West Little Rock restaurant’s location from 2015-2016, and she said Liu sought her out before reopening the downtown location in September.
ROCK N’ ROLL SUSHI 1224 Main St.
For Jason Alley, the owner of Rock N’ Roll Sushi, opening a second location within just a few months was definitely not the plan. But with so many restaurants and businesses struggling or going out of business during the pandemic, that is how it unfolded.
“It is a terrible shame, and I don’t wish it on anyone, but our second location just kind of fell into our lap,” Alley said. “We had a plan to move into more cities across central Arkansas, and this wasn’t planned, but it has been successful.
“Little Rock has really been receptive of our brand and the service. We have been blessed and really lucky with the support that Arkansas has shown us.”
Rock N’ Roll Sushi has a location on Chenal Parkway, which opened in May 2020, and the second location opened in late August. Alley said that for about a month, the location in the SoMa area was to-go only.
“It was difficult,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we had things right. We had already been going through that with our other site, so we were just preparing ourselves.”
The second location required some minor remodeling and painting during that month, and Alley said it has been open for dine-in service since about October of last year.
Rock N’ Roll Sushi is a franchise out of Alabama with 49 locations throughout the Southeast. Alley said it is a brand that is typically known in Alabama and Mississippi but is quickly expanding to Georgia and Florida.
“This pandemic has taught me how to pivot to more of a curbside, to-go service,” Alley said. “It was something that I was aware of and familiar with, but I didn’t place as much emphasis on it.
“This has changed our outlook. We have built more parking to accommodate those guests because I don’t think to-go or curbside is going to go anywhere.”
He said it has given customers and guests a more convenient option.
“There will be a part of the population that continues to not dine in well into the future,” he said.
AC HOTEL BY MARRIOTT 201 W. Capitol Ave.
The AC Hotel by Marriott opened Feb. 18, 2020, and for the first 30 days, the hotel performed better than what was projected, general manager Joshua Castle.
“Then the bottom fell out,” he said. “We had to take the hotel as a whole, with a staff count of about 53, to just six. We closed all of our food and beverage services — which was a very difficult thing to do.”
He said it wasn’t until about two or three months later that the hotel was able to reopen its bar portion. However, it was difficult to hire a bartender because, Castle said, most of their employees were making more money through unemployment than they would if working at the hotel. He said the first two people they offered the job to turned it down.
“Business really ramped back up by July and October for the bar, saleswise,” Castle said. “We have returned guests and regular locals that are coming out.
“It has been really good, and we are turning a profit. We haven’t taken a loss at all.”
He said that right now, the plan is to open the kitchen, including breakfast and dinner services, by April.
“Luckily, ownership allowed us to stay open during 2020, although we did shut down several floors at the high point of the pandemic to help control costs a little bit,” Castle said.
He said that since the pandemic, the focus of the hotel has been essential workers, which revolves primarily around those in the medical industry.
“Our business model has always been focused on the business traveler, but now we are also looking at those who are taking staycations and needing to get out of the house,” he said. “We are adjusting to the needs of those guests.”