BOZEMAN — Restaurant owners are doing their best to keep up during this uncertain time.
Many restaurants have had to completely change the way they deliver their food to customers or close down.
“It’s caught us of off guard for the most part. However, we’re doing the best that we can to work with the ordinances that have been put into place,” said Aaron Parker, the owner of Jam and Dave's Sushi.
“Business has definitely been down. However, we are surviving,” said I-Ho Pomeroy, the owner of I-Ho's Korean Grill.
On March 20, Governor Bullock restricted dine-in services in Montana restaurants.
“Financially, we’ve definitely taken a hit. We went from about, on a slower day, 450 to 500 customers to a busier day and that’s 700 customer range to now we’re right around 25 to 50 orders a day, so it was pretty substantial,” Parker said.
But these small businesses may receive some financial help soon.
“We’re looking forward to seeing how this government stimulus packet is going to turn out. There’s a lot of unknown still of what that’s going to look like for the small business owner,” Parker said.
Despite what they’ve been through, the owners say they’ve taken away some valuable lessons.
“Life is tough. Life, we cannot predict, so we do our best. We do our best, and like I said, we have been enjoying our community’s kindness,” Pomeroy said.
And kindness is something Pomeroy hopes to pass on. Starting Monday, April 6, her restaurant is offering free meals to health care professionals and people who work for the Gallatin City-County Emergency Operations Center. For more information, visit the I-Ho Facebook page.
“Those people, they are front line. Those people, we are going to offer free food,” Pomeroy said.
As of now, it’s a waiting game and restaurants, just like everyone else will have to wait and see when this will be over.