Pandemic Pivots: How COVID-19 Changed Business as Usual

by Brandy Centolanza

Jun. 24, 2020

2:53 p.m.

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Anthony Scordo

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Robin Wilder

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Neil Griggs

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Tracy Frey

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Robby Willey

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Jeff Phillips

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Joe Ash

Local businesses share how they brought their brick-and-mortar businesses into the community during COVID-19.

As COVID-19 swept through Williamsburg this spring forcing a state-mandated shutdown of businesses where people often gather socially to work out, dine and have fun, many local establishments took the time to reinvent themselves in order to best serve their customers.

Restaurants and breweries began offering delivery and curbside orders, gyms started online exercise classes, and entertainment venues provided alternatives for people to keep busy while quarantined.

We asked several business owners how they got creative with their business model during the shutdown and what reflections they had on this time. Here’s what they had to say:

Robin Wilder, Owner, Paint on Pottery

Paint on Pottery offered to-go kits with brushes, paints, and pieces for children to paint at home and return to the store to be fired. The also had projects for Zoom virtual birthday parties with their friends. Adult to-go kit options were also made available.

“I did a lot of brainstorming since people couldn’t come into the studio. One of my vendors gave me the idea of the to-go kits and I just took the idea and ran with it. People were excited about it because the kids are at home now and need something to do, and grownups are bored too.”

Neil Griggs, Owner, Cochon on 2nd and Moody’s Kitchen

Neil Griggs was weeks away from opening Moody’s Kitchen, a new business serving prepared high-end, family style meals to be cooked at home. With Moody’s Kitchen on hold, Griggs rebranded his other restaurant Cochon at Home and began selling themed family-style dinners to go.

“We have basically transformed our company from a casual white tablecloth restaurant to high-end prepared food and delivery company in the matter of four days.

“On March 12, I met with my full staff announced that we were going to make immediate changes and that we were going to open the best food delivery company in Williamsburg, and I wanted their support. I received some wide eye looks, but full support. On March 17, Cochon at Home was born. We are specializing in making prepared meals that are to be finished at home with minimum fuss

and mess. We do the shopping, prep, assembly and the home chef completes the meal in their oven, stove or grille. We are using a cooking method called sous vide. We have retained 100 percent of our staff and have actually added kitchen staff since the inception of Cochon at Home.”

Anthony Scordo, Owner, Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant

Like many restaurants, Giuseppe’s also opted to serve meals to go.

“I came in one day with a completely different business model about how to do things. We’ve also started incorporating some new items onto our menu to see how they go. It’s been working. We can’t thank the community enough for their amazing support. We’ve been a local staple for 28 years and have made some great bonds. We will get through this. And the silver lining in all of this is that I have been able to see my family and my son more. I think this has taught us that maybe we need to stay home and realize what is important.”

Tracy Frey, Market Manager, Williamsburg Farmers Market

Some vendors of Williamsburg Farmers Market pulled together to offer pickup and delivery of products via an online market.

“A number of vendors had called me worried about their loss of livelihood and the impact the markets closure was having on them. On our first Friday of the online market, we had 38 deliveries. The second week, we had 297 orders.

No one could have predicted our 19th season would start like this, but until we can all meet again in Merchants Square on a glorious carefree Saturday morning at the market, we’ll continue working hard to bring local produce, meats, dairy, honey, prepared food and more to our neighbors in greater Williamsburg.”

Bee Wheeler, Owner, Anatolia Bar & Grill

Anatolia relied on social media and phone apps to serve customers their full menu plus discounts on beer and wine.

“Our friends and existing customers have been sharing us on their Facebook pages to build a support system for our restaurant. One positive thing I’ve noticed in all of this is what a strong and connected community we have in Williamsburg and how much people are willing to go to support local small businesses like us. That is worth millions to us.”

Joe Ash, President and Master Instructor, BaePlex

Ash introduced the new online virtual platform BaePlex University.

“In addition to our members, I thought it was important to do something for all communities. We’ve launched a Facebook campaign across America and offered a special free virtual martial arts course. We did this to help kids regroup and gain focus on something positive, healthy and fun. For the parents, we wanted to give them hope and a little peace of mind.

Going virtual has allowed us to access anyone anywhere in the world. Right now, we are 99 percent virtual, but once we are able to resume normal business practices, we have this additional resource to continue growing and serve a broader base of clients.”

Jeff Phillips, Alewerks Brewing Company

Alewerks closed its taprooms while still operating and selling beer to go.

“We’ve continued to produce and package new beers and have added an entire ordering suite to our website that allows customers to place orders online, including from their phone, so that it’s actually more convenient than ever before to get craft beer. Not only is there a steady stream of orders and people picking up at the taproom, but there have been a number of social media posts of happy Alewerks customers showing themselves enjoying their beers at home, usually captioned with a hearty thank you for making it so easy to still get their favorite beer.

“Curbside and delivery have not only helped keep people stocked with Alewerks, but it has afforded us an opportunity to provide exemplary service and to go the extra mile for our customers. It’s also given us an opportunity to interact with our customers more than we normally might and to create and nurture relationships. I think it helps to put a face on a product, to remind customers that there are real people behind every step of these beers, not just the bartender with whom you come into contact in the taproom.”

Robby Willey, Co-founder, The Virginia Beer Company

VBC quietly celebrated its fourth anniversary in March as it shifted to curbside grab-and-go services and collaborated on a special brew called All Together to benefit Williamsburg Community Foundation.

“During normal operations, we put a lot of focus on our company mantra of Beer · People · Purpose and organize as many community outreach events as possible. With the shift to takeaway services, we hadn’t been in the position to support our community the way that we’re accustomed to doing.

“When we saw that Other Half Brewing out of New York was organizing a fundraiser via the sale of canned beer rather than draft, we decided it was time to add the Purpose part back into our operations. Other Half Brewing developed an ‘open source’ recipe and left it up to each participating brewery to brew their own version, making it easy to come up with a similar recipe using ingredients that we already had on hand.”

“The focus of AllTogetherBeer is to support the hospitality industry, as many of our food and beverage brethren have fallen on hard times. While we’ve been able to steady our operations in this ever-changing environment and retain 100 percent of our staff, many have not been so lucky. We sold out of every can of our All Together IPA in 72 hours. The Virginia Beer Co. will be able to donate at least $1,500 to the Williamsburg Community Foundation thanks to sales of this beer.

“We chose the Williamsburg Community Foundation because we felt like this organization and their Emergency Response Fund would be best suited to support not just in-need members of the hospitality industry but the widest swath of those most in-need throughout Greater Williamsburg. We hope that by using our brewery and our beer as a platform to promote the efforts being undertaken by Williamsburg

Community Foundation, it will encourage others to take up their cause, get involved and continue to look out for our neighbors.”