BLAINE – (April 23, 2020) – Restaurant dining rooms may be closed, but many restaurants are doing all they can to stay open for business. One popular family-owned restaurant in Blaine has re-created itself as a take-out only venue.
“Turkey is our number one, turkey and meatloaf everyday,” Teresa Benson tells a caller to Carol’s Restaurant on Aberdeen Street in Blaine.
It’s the kind of comfort food Carol’s has been serving there for nearly 17 years. Teresa, her mother Carol, and a brother and sister own and run the restaurant. Many customers are regulars.
“We’re trying to keep people fed and stay in business and hopefully they won’t forget about us,” Teresa says.
After closing in mid-March, Carol’s reopened as take-out only. They had done take out before, but not like this.
“It’s out of our comfort zone, running food out,” says Teresa. “It’s tough. By the time you figure heat and lights and your food and your paper supplies and stuff we can do it for a little bit, but at some point, and I hope soon, we can get back up and running at full capacity.”
Teresa says they are anxious to know what changes will need to be made to the dining room to allow proper distancing when they get the green light to reopen.. One option may require eliminating some tables.
“How do you limit people that are coming in? I’m not sure how do you do that,” said Teresa. “Hopefully they’ll have things in place that are workable.”
One expert we talked to says getting control of the cash situation is key to survival for small businesses. John Stavig, Director of the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota, says that could mean painful furloughs or delaying some expenses. But he encourages small businesses to put entrepreneurship to work for long term success.
“A lot of the take out only restaurants are doing it not to make money,” Stavig says, “They’re doing it to hang onto a few employees and they’re doing it hopefully to create some loyalty and stay in the community and stay in people’s minds.”
Stavig says small businesses that can do it, may come out ahead.
“Those companies that don’t just look inward and recoil, but that really rush out and strengthen their ties with the community you know this may be an opportunity for them to come out even stronger over time.”
At Carol’s Restaurant, Teresa wants to reach out to her regular customers with a big thank you.
“Keep supporting us and we’ll keep making that food, that comfort food,” she promises.
