{"id":2456995,"date":"2020-04-09T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=324017"},"modified":"2020-04-09T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T18:00:00","slug":"food-matters-aspen-restaurants-survive-strange-times-with-takeout-and-delivery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/food-matters-aspen-restaurants-survive-strange-times-with-takeout-and-delivery\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Matters: Aspen restaurants survive strange times with takeout and delivery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">The lights are on. Tables have been polished. Stevie Wonder croons from speakers overhead. Yet on Saturday at 11 a.m., the bar and both dining rooms at Hickory House in Aspen are empty of customers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Jimmy McDaid, today\u2019s sole front-of-house employee, will answer the phone and pack takeout and delivery orders until lunch ends at 2:30 p.m. Business has been \u201csteady,\u201d he says \u2014 Hickory House is a rare restaurant in town with established distribution, and among few offering food to-go since the government-ordered coronavirus closure of dine-in eateries \u2014 but, boy, this is weird.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cOn a Saturday morning a month ago, it would have been full \u2014 always full!\u201d quips manager Mariano Celso, who arrives from shuttling food in a red-and-white logo-wrapped pickup truck. Hickory House is running on a skeleton crew, with just one cook. That will double for dinner tonight, served by two deliverymen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cIt\u2019s getting better,\u201d Celso continues. \u201cWe sold out of pork and beef last night. We need to do more lunch. Construction is stuck (in limbo) \u2026 and they get a lot of food for takeout.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote p402_hide\" readability=\"5\">\n<blockquote readability=\"13\">\n<p>\u201cThe purpose of offering take out and delivery is primarily to help our cash flow in order to fund our employee relief fund. (General manager and partner) Jessica (Lischka) and I committed to be there for our employees, especially our kitchen crew, and make sure that they had the means to keep paying their bills during this time. We also have our chef, sous chef, and managers on year-round salaries, so we might as well put ourselves to good use. We are very pleased with the community response to our efforts to serve them. Their support is overwhelming. It\u2019s nice to know that after being in business for 23 years that our loyal friends and customers are showing up for us.\u201d \u2014 Jimmy\u2019s owner Jimmy Yeager<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">As residents settle into a new reality of sheltering in place, wearing masks on supermarket runs and cooking most meals at home, local restaurants face a catch-22: Stay open with takeout or delivery in an effort to make rent and keep struggling workers employed, yet lose money anyway; or shut down for offseason weeks prematurely and forfeit revenue nevertheless.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cI\u2019m losing $500 a day being open,\u201d says Ryno\u2019s owner Ryan Sweeney, who cut staff at the pizzeria by two-thirds, started delivery just days before the shutdown, and is advertising for the first time in years. \u201cI can continue doing this in the name of taking care of the people who have taken care of me over the years\u2014they don\u2019t have savings to live off. (But) people are not ordering often. Everyone is terrified of spending money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Customers who can afford the occasional restaurant meal\u2014and delivery often means a limited menu, order minimum and automatic service charge \u2014 help keep businesses afloat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cWe gotta support them,\u201d urges Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo, a longtime Hickory House fan. \u201cWe all gotta eat!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Hospitality veterans, meanwhile, grapple with a service industry standstill. Aspen native Erik Strauss \u2014 a seasoned chauffeur \u2014 snatched the chance to deliver food for Ryno\u2019s when it launched door-to-door service. His wife is currently more than six months pregnant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cI try not to keep track of numbers, so not to stress about money,\u201d says Strauss, who finds a silver lining in traffic-free streets. \u201cI\u2019m helping to spread the love, so (other people) don\u2019t have to be running around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Most delivery workers earn tips only, and tippers have been generous. Concerning safety, folks seem to respect social distancing, sometimes paying via credit card and receiving food dropped on a doorstep, if requested. \u201cI haven\u2019t had friends try to give me a hug,\u201d Strauss says. \u201cEverybody seems to be observing this well, doing everything proper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Oliver Bacharach, a Jimmy\u2019s server-turned-volunteer deliveryman helping out in exchange for a post-shift meal, is grateful for any work at all. He might run just a half-dozen orders in four hours (takeout and gift card sales are Jimmy\u2019s bread and butter now). Plus he surrenders tips to Jimmy\u2019s kitchen staff and employee relief fund. But the gig allows him to see friendly faces and stay connected to the community, with purpose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cI love when (bartender) Kayla and I answer the phone at Jimmy\u2019s and hear a familiar voice,\u201d Bacharach explains. \u201cIt\u2019s weird having an empty restaurant when (we are) so used to a packed house, but everyone (is) chipping in, and we\u2019re grateful for the support. It\u2019s definitely a scary time. We\u2019re all hoping for a good summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\"><span><em><a href=\"mailto:amandaraewashere@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">amandaraewashere@gmail.com<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/food-matters-aspen-restaurants-survive-strange-times-with-takeout-and-delivery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The lights are on. Tables have been polished. Stevie Wonder croons from speakers overhead. Yet on Saturday at 11 a.m., the bar and both dining rooms at Hickory House in Aspen are empty of customers. Jimmy McDaid, today\u2019s sole front-of-house employee, will answer the phone and pack takeout and delivery orders until lunch ends at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 05:12:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}