Jane and Skip from Elixir Restaurant speak on their experiences during the pandemic
Jane and Skip from Elixir Restaurant speak on their experiences during the pandemic
Hello and welcome back to Upper Valley Edible Explorations’s series of interviews on local restaurateurs and other foodservice proprietors on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry.
This time we’re talking with Jane and Skip of White River Junction’s Elixir, one of my personal favourite restaurants.
UVEX: Tell us a little bit about your restaurant before all of this started.
J&S: Before we were closed by the State o Vermont we were off to another record year of guest counts and sales. January sales were excellent and February sales were very good.
How has covid 19 impacted your business?
We are now closed and our fourteen employees are on furlough.
What does this mean for you in the long run?
TBD. We hope that everything will return to normal over time.
How has your business reacted and adjusted, what new models have you adopted?
When we do get to reopen we will reduce our seating and give more spacing between tables and may have to adjust our business hours. We have to see what happens and adjust as the situation demands.
What could you say you’ve learned from having to deal with this situation?
That no matter how well you do your business or how successful it is it can all come to a screeching halt with no fault of our own.
What do you feel you’ll need to do in order to recover?
Do everything we can to make our guests feel safe to come back to the restaurant.
Do you think that after this we’ll see a push in more local goods and for more respect for industry workers?
We have always used as much local as we can and will continue to. I don’t know how this would change the perception of the industry.
Is there anything you’d like to tell your colleagues in the industry?
Hang in and hope for the best. Know that you are in this difficult situation due to no fault of your own.