What can be done to help Wilmington-area restaurants?

Ever since locals began to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, Josh Petty says he has been scrambling to make sense of its impact on the restaurant industry.

Like many others, he was a part of the rush to get Payroll Protection Program loans earlier this year. And they then tried to follow guidelines, hire employees back and move forward.

“It’s been really hard,” said Petty, owner of Cast Iron Kitchen in Porters Neck. “We rehired everyone, and then we had to furlough everyone again.”

It’s doubly frustrating because his business model was working well before the pandemic. Now he’s trying to fix something that wasn’t broken.

That’s why Petty is urging all food lovers to educate themselves about the issues -- on everything from why masks are important in restaurants to why costs are going up because of an increased need on paper to-go products.

“It would be great if people could learn more about what’s at stake,” Petty said.

Petty has pointed his fans to the Independent Restaurant Coalition, which is in turn asking people to reach out to their elected officials in support of the RESTAURANTS Act of 2020, which would establish a $120 billion restaurant revitalization fund.

“This industry supports so many people, from restaurant workers to farmers,” he said.

In the process of trying to rethink and revamp, he closed the restaurant again on July 1. Petty reopened on Aug. 7 as a Southern deli focused on prepared foods. You can still get biscuits and sandwiches via counter service and eat them at a picnic table.

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Wendy Fincher-Hughes, of the Winnie’s Tavern on Burnett Blvd., also briefly opened for dine in, but decided to return to a take-out model. She said it was a personal decision that she made to best serve her customers and employees.

“The people who support us really love us. And it’s great,” she said. “The people that don’t, well... we have a dirt parking lot so they kick up a little dust on their way out.”

Fincher-Hughes said she doubts she’ll see a profit this year.

“But I am providing jobs,” she said. “If I can at least provide a living wage for the people who work here, I’m OK with that.”

But uncertainty continues for the industry.

Petty worries about the long-term consequences. Many restaurants, especially those that are locally and independently owned, never have a surplus of cash flow at the best of times. Petty estimates that his sales are down 75 percent from this time last year.

“I don’t know how many of us will be able to survive six months like this,” Petty said. “It’s day to day.”

Lynn Minges, president and CEO of the North Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association, recently said that at least 30 percent of the state’s smaller independent restaurants are in danger of closing in coming months.

“It’s definitely something we’ve talked to our members about,” she said. They are also tracking a decline in employment across the state and watching how proposals in Congress could help.

There are other efforts, too, from both nonprofit and local governments to try and help restaurants.

The James Beard Foundation established a Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund, but suspended applications after an initial overwhelming response. Washington D.C.-based chef Erik Bruner-Yang started the Power of 10 Initiative that works to get restaurants $10,000 a week to create 10 full-time jobs and provide 1,000 free meals to its direct community. It’s now at 30 restaurants. Many are in Washington, New York and Chicago, but Harper’s Pineville in Charlotte is also among them.

Former Wilmington resident Ashley Relf now lives in Corvallis, Oregon and helped start an effort with two fellow volunteers worried about their local economy. It’s On Us, or IOU, Corvallis crowd sources money to buy meals from restaurants. Those meals are then available to anyone who wants them.

So far, they’ve raised $100,000 for restaurants in the community.

“It’s a really simple model,” Relf said. “It’s absolutely something that could work anywhere.”

Wilmington has made an effort to allow restaurants to add to their allotted 50 percent capacity by adding tables in adjacent parking lots, or on the street in the case of this summer’s Downtown Alive program.

Elsewhere, governments are offering grants and relief loans to these and other small businesses, or adding flexibility to alcohol sales.

As for Petty, he is trying to adapt. He posted videos to social media with instructions on how to create his elaborate charcuterie boards. You can pick up the supplies from him, with an assembly schematic. The popular biscuits and sausage gravy is available as a kit to make for a weekend breakfast. Or you can buy a take-and-bake meatloaf, and containers of pimento cheese, Eastern-style barbecue sauce, or chow chow.

“I think that’s something people are comfortable with right now,” Petty said.

At this point, though, it’s difficult to know what will work or if it will be enough.

“I’m hoping we can survive,” Petty said.

“Support local,” Fincher-Hughes said. “That’s all we can do is support each other.”