Edwardsville Area Restaurants Adjust To Coronavirus Restrictions By Introducing Curb Service, Delivery And Online Ordering

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EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville area restaurants have been adjusting to restrictions put into place March 17 because of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, which closed all dining areas before stay-at-home orders were mandated by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on March 23.

In many cases, the restaurants have initiated carry-out and curb service for customers to pick up their orders, while others are also delivering.

In the case of Doc's Smokehouse barbecue restaurant in Edwardsville, they were ahead of the curve as far as requiring workers to wear rubber gloves and consistently cleaning and sanitizing their restaurant.

"Before any mandates, what we decided to do were all of our co-workers and workers here was wearing gloves," said manager Alysia Brown. "We were wiping and sanitizing all of the computers every time they were being used, which kind of slowed the line down a little bit, but all the customers were really appreciative that we're taking extra steps in order to make sure we're keeping them as safe as well as we're keeping ourselves safe."

Brown is keeping a close eye on her revenue and labor to make sure that everything is working properly at Doc's, and to ensure that the restaurant can stay open during this very difficult time.

"Definitely looking at revenue and labor, making sure that all that's fitting into the process of how we're working," Brown said, "and that we're still able to continue being open during this time, and help our guests, as well as all the employees, too, because they have lives outside of here. We are trying to make sure that everyone's comfortable, but still being able to take the precautions that we need to take."

Doc's recently started its curbside and delivery services, and it's definitely been a learning process for Brown and her co-workers in implementing those services.

"We started doing carry-out, curbside and delivery, so that means the obstacle of how to figure out how that's going to be like a big play into our normal routine," Brown said, "because we're not used to having to go outside, or take orders that way, or even delivery processes, how that's going to for us, who can deliver, who can't deliver, those types of things, how far are we going to go out to deliver, or just how are we going to interact with the customers, and how they're going to interact with us. And also, where customers are going to come is another big thing that me, personally, I thought about. Like, are they still going to come how they were beforehand, which, honestly, the customers around here have shown us a lot of love."

In the case of Wang Gang Asian Eats, the company was founded as a take-out and delivery business, and the restaurant has thrived during the current pandemic.

"We were born as Wang Gang Asian, back in the day, to be a delivery and take-out concept, and we do it really well, I think, for 10 or 11 years now," said manager Ryan O'Day. "So when this happened to us, it's a little bit different, because you've got a lot of employees that are bartenders and servers and what not; those people we've redeployed to work as far as take-out, delivery and that type of thing goes. I'm not a big the sky is falling type of person. Definitely, a lot of people are going to come out of it with a whole different business model, expectations of what the customer wants, as far as a restaurant goes. Online ordering becomes that much easier."

Another trend is a pick-up cabinet, where carry-out orders are there for customers who call in and have a code available to them.

"We haven't had a touchless pick-up cabinet," O'Day said. "Carter-Hoffman supplies that to us, and it's you scan your code and the door opens up, so basically, the food sits in there, you grab it and go, which is really nice and convenient. You see a lot of those trends already out there anyway, self-shopping and what not, so because people have that technology, that makes it a little bit easier for people to use, and I'll call it the interaction, if you will, diminished. So that helps out."

O'Day also feels that Wang Gang also enjoys tremendous support, not just through out the Edwardsville-Glen Carbon area, but throughout all of Madison County.

"As far as Edwardsville-Glen Carbon goes and the overall general Madison County area, we receive a lot of support," O'Day said. "Not only at the level of customers to businesses, but it's also business to business, also some leadership in the area to businesses. The mayor (Hal Patton) reacted pretty quickly with some different, I'll call it I guess, application processes and money to come up with some signage, for example, outside. Overall, the community, I think, is doing a great job as far as just being out there and doing what they can do,"

O'Day also knows that some of the businesses could take a massive hit because of the current pandemic, and wants to support all the businesses as much as possible.

"So, it's kind of touch-and-go for a lot of businesses," O'Day said. "And the ones that are allowed to stay open, they want to keep doing what they do best, and the ones that had to shut down, you know, if I could support them some other way, we try to do that kind of thing. That's been happening lately."

The community is also supporting the businesses with their tips to the workers, which also helps tremendously.

"I feel also that what you have is a lot of community support with the gratuity part of things like that," O'Day said. "We've got a few people that are working on how to get some funds and additional people, and we're working on that as well as far at that goes. So again, the community's tremendous. No other community would I rather be in in this particular one right now in this particular scenario, So, excellent, kudos to the population in the area, and let's just keep it up."

"Not having anyone dine in really weird for us, because we are really big on hospitality," said Robin Arnold of Chicken Salad Chick restaurant, an entry into the Edwardsville area over the past year. "So, we have had to find other ways to impress our guests."

At first, Arnold was apprehensive, due to her restaurant having a very high volume of dine-in customers, but gave her workers great credit for keeping things together since the start of the restrictions.

"I was a little afraid, because we have a very high volume dine-in," Arnold said, "but our team really pulled it together. We have been selling our Quick Chicks on location pick-ups, and it has been really successful. It's actually really helped us in this time. We've been helping people by picking different cities for pick-up locations around the area, so people who normally wouldn't get their chicken salad in certain areas are getting it now, and people don't have to drive all the way to Edwardsville to pick it up. So, it's been really successful."

An unfortunate part of the adjustments has been having to cut workers' hours, with many of the employees who usually would receive full-time hours not getting those hours at this time. But Arnold gave her employees credit for persevering to provide her guests with excellent service.

"Cutting workers hours, that part was kind of rough, too," Arnold said. "My full-time people aren't necessarily getting full-time hours anymore, but we are pushing through and working really hard to make sure that they can still make it."

Arnold also feels that the community is rallying together to get through the crisis, and feels that it's starting to show.

"You can really tell community coming together a lot more," Arnold said. "I have people who come in, and literally, they weren't planning on coming here originally, maybe this week, but they're trying to hit all the small businesses in the area. A lot of our guests are really pushing small business to help them stay open, so I feel like that's a really positive thing for the community, especially the Edwardsville-Glen Carbon area."

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