COVID-19 forces Athens restaurants to reinvent amid recovery

As restrictions ease, chefs and owners are trying to decide what comes first: profit or safety.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, Chef Mimi Maumus of home.made closed her restaurant for five months. She struggled to pay bills, meet payroll and navigate complicated federal loan programs.

“It’s been a lot of changes, a lot of curveballs, a lot of just trying to sort of feel our way blindly,” Maumus said.

A year later, she’s planning to reopen once she updates her air conditioning and installs outdoor seating, part of a series of reinventions for this restaurant veteran.

As Maumus puts it, “I’m starting an entirely new business.”

She’s not alone. Melissa Booth Hall of the Southern Foodways Alliance said restaurants across the country were not prepared for the virus’ impact. And now their business model and longevity hang in the balance.

“The weight of the pandemic has fallen heavily on the restaurant industry,” Booth Hall said.

In a February survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association, 32% of owners believe business won’t return to normal for another seven to 12 months. 29% say it will be more than a year.

Getting back to normal feels like a never-ending road for Maumus. The workload for restaurant owners like herself grew sharply. To her ever-growing list of duties, she added public health researcher, unemployment filer and loan applicant.

She switched banks to more readily receive federal paycheck protection program (PPP) loans. She cut the catering side of her restaurant. She started a GoFundMe early in the pandemic and now works to ensure her staff receives timely unemployment checks.

“It makes me feel powerless in those kinds of situations, like when my staff is looking at me like ‘What happened?’ and all I can say is, guys, I don’t know, I’m doing everything I can to figure out what happened,” Maumus said.

Maumus said she wouldn’t have been able to figure things out without the network of restaurants who were in the same boat. They messaged about using UVC lighting in the HVAC unit to kill the coronavirus. She learned about changes to file for unemployment after cutting 85% of her staff.

It’s also how she’s receiving updates on where she and her staff can get vaccinated.

“It feels like I’m trying to do everything the right way and cross my T’s and dot my I’s, but sometimes it’s like, I don’t even know the alphabet,” Maumus said.

With these constant changes, restaurants have struggled to look ahead as the money barely trickles in.

Michael Myers specializes in restaurant consultations with the Small Business Development Center in Athens. He’s never seen their total sales just stop so dramatically.

“The biggest thing that I’ve seen is them having to kind of reinvent themselves,” Myers said.

Myers says the recovery process will depend on a vaccination timeline and the rest of the economy reopening, especially schools.

Early rounds of stimulus loans don’t have to be paid back, as long as certain conditions were met. What businesses are worried about now, Myers said, is continuing to borrow money that they will have to pay back.

“You just get to the point where you’re just trading dollars, you’re not making any money,” Myers said.

Without loyal customers, Maumus says she wouldn’t have made it this far. One customer donated $120,000, which covers home.made’s overhead costs for months.

Maumus was grateful for the support, but just a short time after the donation was set up, the donor unexpectedly died of a gallbladder infection. Even her silver linings came at a price.

“I think the loss of her, you know, on, on this planet is a pretty big loss,” Maumus said. “It is huge and it’s impactful and it feels like one of the most meaningful things that I’ve ever experienced.”

That gift, coupled with Maumus’ reinvention efforts, helped home.made survive the pandemic so far. And as restaurants across the country reopen to max capacity, Maumus won’t until she knows her staff and her customers are safe.

It’s unclear whether the relationship between customer and chef might be enough to keep restaurants like home.made open in a post-COVID world. Maumus is doing all she can to make that happen.