Horseshoe Cafe owner ‘overwhelmed’ by support
Debra Thompson defied stay-at-home order
The owner of Wickenburg’s Horseshoe Cafe said she is “overwhelmed” by the outpouring of support she’s received since she reopened her restaurant to dine-in customers last Friday, despite the state’s ongoing stay-at-home order stemming from the new coronavirus.
Business has been booming for Debra Thompson and her employees in the days since she reopened, with Thompson telling The Arizona Republic she ran out of food on Saturday for the first time in her nearly 20 years of working at the cafe.
She’s ordered more shipments of food several times throughout the last week, saying that she typically doesn’t have to order so much just to keep up with demand.
Though she’s grateful for the support she’s gotten, Thompson said it’s been a whirlwind.
“I’m exhausted – this has taken quite a toll on me,” she said. “I didn’t realize this would escalate as far as it has.”
She wouldn’t tell customers to leave
After reopening last Friday, Thompson’s cafe was one of several places in town that were visited by police. The visits were informational in nature, with two officers handing each business owner a copy of Gov. Doug Ducey’s order and then leaving.
Thompson was in tears as the officers left, telling The Republic that she would be willing to be arrested but that she would not tell her customers to leave.
In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Thompson said she had not been visited by police or any other government officials since that day.
She added, though, that she’d received a voicemail from the health department on Thursday evening before her reopening that warned her of a “major complaint” that’d been levied against her cafe.
Thompson said she’s afraid that officials are going to “nitpick” her restaurant to impose fines or other penalties because of her stance.
She also mentioned patriot rallies are planned for this weekend in Wickenburg,
adding that she imagines there could be another encounter with police because of the influx of people expected in the town.
‘Giving other businesses hope’
Thompson said she’s had customers drive several hours just to patronize her restaurant and that she’s gotten phone calls of support from all over the country.
There have been a few people who have expressed their opposition to Thompson’s reopening of her restaurant, including a woman who walked into her cafe and yelled about how “disgusted” she was with Thompson for about five minutes before leaving.
Thompson said she’s heard criticism from some that she only reopened for “publicity” and said that she sometimes wonders if reopening was worth the grief it has caused.
“It’s really scary,” she said. “I think to myself sometimes, ‘Oh my God, what have I done? Why didn’t I keep my big mouth shut and just go along with the program?’ Then I get to thinking, ‘This is giving other businesses hope.’ ”
Thompson was nearly in tears over the phone as she discussed seeing lines of customers waiting for a table at her cafe, which one day during the shutdown took in only $20.
There also was a woman who one day knocked on the cafe’s back door shortly before closing time with her 82-year-old mother. She told Thompson that she and her mother drove from Phoenix just to meet her. The three of them chatted for 45 minutes, ending their conversation with hugs.
One man called her and offered Thompson his credit card information, saying that she could charge his card if she needed money for any reason. Thompson thanked the man, but declined the offer.
Another woman stood at the cafe’s front door crying, telling Thompson that she grew up in a communist country and wanted to thank her for standing up against similar things happening in the United States, Thompson said.
Others have offered to pay potential attorney fees, bail Thompson out of jail or assist with any other legal case.
“It makes me feel so good, just to know that people are behind me, that they do care about what happens,” Thompson said.
‘I’m just concerned about our little town’
Stacy McKnight, 49, only lives about 10 miles away from the cafe and had eaten there several times before the pandemic.
She supported Thompson’s decision to reopen during the stay-at-home order, initially visiting the cafe on Friday. At that time, it was already closed, so McKnight made a donation and gave Thompson a hug before leaving.
She returned the next day to order a cup of coffee and hang out at the restaurant, which she said was “packed” with customers.
McKnight said she’s concerned about the “many contradictions” she sees in the stay-at-home order, adding that she believes it’s “discriminatory” that large numbers of people are allowed in stores like Lowe’s or Target even as small businesses are forced to shut their doors.
“If it was truly a threat, if it was truly serious, they would not be allowing 300 people in Lowe’s all day, every day,” she said.
McKnight said she’s worked in the food and beverage industry for many years and said it’s difficult for small businesses to survive on takeout orders.
The shutdown also came at an inopportune time for Wickenburg, right in the middle of its peak tourism season. McKnight said snowbirds and tourists are starting to leave the area because of the rising temperatures, and that businesses are reopening prior to the end of the order because they want to get as much money as they can to sustain themselves through the low tourism months in the summertime.
“All they’re doing is trying to give their staff a way to make a little bit of money,” she said. “They’re trying to help their staff not lose everything.”
McKnight said she believes unnecessary fear is “really driving everybody’s motivations” and that she doesn’t want that fear to cause long-term negative impacts to the small businesses in Wickenburg.
“I’m just concerned about our little town, and I don’t want people to go bankrupt,” she said.
Governor says restaurants can reopen for dine-in on May 11
Ducey earlier in the week announced that restaurants could reopen for dine-in service on May 11. Restaurants that reopen are expected to maintain physical distancing, including limiting parties to no more than 10, operating with reduced occupancy and capacity, and implementing comprehensive sanitation protocols and symptom screening for employees.
The governor on Monday assured the public those decisions were “safe.” He said more robust data gathered after a weekend “testing blitz” showed downward trajectories in many of the COVID-19 indicators the White House has suggested states meet to begin reopening.
Public health experts, however, say the data Ducey is relying on isn’t clear enough to show sustained and acrossthe-board declines in the prevalence of COVID-19 in Arizona.
For instance, Ducey touted a decrease in the proportion of positive COVID-19 tests. That’s a key benchmark, and the numbers do show a downward shift. But that may have more to do with the expansion of testing in Arizona — still among the worst in the nation per capita — than a true decline in new infections.
Requests for comment to the Wickenburg Police Department were not returned.