The Power of Local in a Pandemic

Local businesses have deep roots in their communities and close connections to their customers. In the Louisville, Lexington and southern Indiana regions, local business owners have shown their dedication and creativity to keep their businesses going and continue to serve customers in the midst of a global pandemic.

No one could guide them on how to best take care of their customers as well as their staff. Owners and managers weren’t sure how to best respond to this crisis to safely keep their businesses afloat. They had to make many hard decisions about what to do, and didn’t have a lot of time to make crucial plans that would affect a lot of people.

Business owners in these regions regrouped and applied their creativity to make plans to keep their businesses running and serve their customers during completely unfamiliar circumstances. They figured out how to shift their business plans to meet the needs of customers in this new reality. These businesses took varied paths, but learned a lot of things along the way—and in some cases, made changes they expect to keep.

MOVING ONLINE
 

MESA Kids Cooking School in New Albany, Indiana, offers cooking classes for kids aged 5–15. Unfortunately, they were not able to continue offering classes in their classroom during the pandemic. However, MESA Kids took advantage of video streaming tools and began offering cooking classes online. They prepared boxes of ingredients for the class assignments and made those available for curbside pickup or for shipping.

Amazingly, MESA Kids saw signups for classes increase, since this new format offered almost complete schedule and distance flexibility, according to MESA owner Bobby Bass. They are now considering expanding their online kids’ cooking school programs nationwide, shipping the needed ingredients to their students wherever they live.

Bass’ partner business MESA, A Collaborative Kitchen, offers its customers the unique experience of watching a chef prepare a gourmet meal in bar-like seating around the kitchen. Because an online format was not possible, they adapted by offering themed takeout dinners with virtual trivia games.

Carmichael’s Books, with three locations in the Louisville area, had a steady stream of orders on their website, but hadn’t been doing a large volume of online sales. However, once they were forced to close their doors to customers in March, Carmichael’s saw a huge increase in online ordering of books, said co-owner Miranda Blankenship. They also added non-book items to their website like puzzles, cards, games and clothing. Customers could choose to have their items delivered locally, shipped anywhere or could do curbside pickup. Carmichael’s also moved their book club online to allow it to continue despite social distancing mandates, and are exploring additional online event options.

“Everything changed in 24 to 48 hours.”
—Bobby Bass, owner of MESA, A Collaborative Kitchen and MESA Kids Cooking School

TAKEOUT
 

Suddenly ordered to close their doors to customers, local restaurants had to scramble for ways to keep their businesses going when traditional dine-in service was no longer an option. In addition, they wanted to keep employing their staff and to ensure the food that they had in storage didn’t go to waste.

Cat Mac Dowall, owner of Naïve, a restaurant in the Butchertown neighborhood in Louisville that focuses on fresh, local, innovative food and drinks, knew she needed to be creative to find ways to continue to serve customers and sell stored ingredients. In addition to offering their food and drinks for curbside carryout and delivery, she introduced a $10 lunch special, which brought a lot of new customers.

Similarly, the owners of Corto Lima restaurant in Lexington were overwhelmed in the early days of the pandemic, trying to figure out what to do to keep their business alive. They decided to lay off their 52 employees to allow them to start collecting unemployment immediately. TJ Cox, managing partner, said it was the hardest day of his two decades of work in the service industry.

Corto Lima began offering curbside food on Wednesdays and Sundays, adding an outdoor hostess station to facilitate the filling of orders and expediting the line of cars waiting for pickups, explained Cox. Though they found steep learning curves in all these changes, they have now hit their stride and are adjusting to the new model. Customers have too, continuing to come to the restaurant the two nights a week they offer carryout. As they change their menu offerings every week, Corto Lima has started sending e-mail blasts to let customers know about that week’s options. They have slowly been able to bring back their staff as the situation has stabilized.

Left: Corto Lima in Lexington offers Handmade Margarita Mix to accompany takeout orders. Right: Using local ingredients and Mason jars, Holly Hill Inn in Midway crafts cocktails to pair with weekly menu options. Photos: Courtesy of Corto Lima.

BARE NECESSITIES
 

In the early days of the pandemic, grocery stores were crowded with people stocking up on necessities, such as toilet paper, hand sanitizer, rice, beans and pasta. These items quickly grew scarce as stores had a difficult time keeping them in stock. Mac Dowall quickly realized that, with no other grocery nearby, she had an opportunity to serve their customers in a new way. As a community oriented business, she wanted to provide things that their customers needed and wanted the most during this time.

Naïve began selling some of their restaurant ingredients directly to customers, along with take-and-bake items such as biscuits and cookies, coffee by the bag, tortilla chips, hummus and queso. Once she realized that the farmers who supply their ingredients were being hit hard, she wanted to do something to support them as well. She responded by buying farm-fresh eggs, sausage, bacon and lettuce and selling those items to customers. In addition, she offered hard-to-find items like toilet paper. Customers gratefully showed up to buy these items, delighted to have a place nearby to get necessities. “I wouldn’t be doing it if I weren’t super passionate about our community,” said Mac Dowall.

COCKTAILS TO GO
 

In both Indiana and Kentucky, as the pandemic began to spread, emergency laws were passed to allow restaurants to sell takeout alcoholic drinks even without having package liquor licenses. This allowed them to continue to provide adult beverages to their customers, retaining an important source of revenue despite not being allowed to have customers on the premises. Mac Dowall took full advantage, offering different themed weeks for their drinks and creating special cocktails named after local businesses.

The owners of Corto Lima also saw the opportunity provided by this law change and began developing to-go cocktails. This allowed them to offer prickly pear margarita mix, along with agave spirits and premium wines for their customers to enjoy with their carryout food. They have been developing cocktails that pair perfectly with their menu, sending out e-mails to their customers to inform them of each week’s offerings.

Holly Hill Inn in Midway, Kentucky, also shifted to offering to-go food and drinks for their customers, according to Donna Hecker, Director of Events. They focused on bottled wine sales, featuring a different wine each week. They also offered craft cocktails in 16-ounce Mason jars, designed to be taken home, mixed and consumed with takeout food orders. They found that the cocktails, seasonally flavored with local ingredients as are the rest of their offerings, were very popular with their customers.

GRATITUDE
 

For many businesses, though there were many huge challenges to overcome, their efforts paid off. They are grateful for their hardworking and dedicated staff, who took on a lot of changes in a very short time. “How lucky we are to have been able to continue to run our business during this time and the community support has just been so amazing. It is really what had kept us going these last eight weeks. That and our amazing staff, without whom we couldn’t do any of this,” said Blankenship.

According to Cox, when the pandemic started, Corto Lima was forced to lay off their staff and the owners and their family members figured out how to make the new model work. They then were able to rehire some of their staff to put the new plan in place. “The staff we’ve been able to bring back has gone all in and been 100% on board with a willingness to make this as successful as possible. Guests showing up time after time and enjoying the same great quality they came to expect in the dining room has really made us shine,” said Cox.

LOOKING FORWARD
 

Several local businesses made changes to cope with the pandemic that they now expect to make permanent because they have proven so successful. As restrictions have eased, all businesses have reopened, following state guidelines and are adhering to safety protocols. Be sure to check business websites for the most up-to-date information. Although it’s unclear if the new to-go alcohol laws will remain, several businesses indicated they would like to keep providing takeout alcohol with their to-go food orders. .

Local businesses have deep roots in their communities and are cherished by their customers. With great amounts of creativity and grit, many were able to continue serving customers during a global pandemic. It’s an amazing testament to the power of local.

CARMICHAELS: CarmichaelsBookStore.com

CORTO LIMA: CortoLima.com

HOLLY HILL INN: HollyHillInn.com

MESA KIDS COOKING SCHOOL: MesaKidsCookingSchool.com

MESA, A COLLABORATIVE KITCHEN: MesaChefs.com

NAÏVE: EatNaive.com