Restaurant scrambling

APRIL 4, 2020, ORMOND BEACH — As celebrations go, Glenn and Patti Doherty’s 30th wedding anniversary this week wasn’t the festive occasion they had envisioned, thanks to the global upheaval of the coronavirus crisis.

Owners of The Sandwich Shoppe on U.S. 1, the Dohertys shared a few quiet hours on the big day alone at work, where customers at the popular breakfast and lunch eatery have been in short supply amid restrictions on dining out and guidelines from government and public health officials to stay home.

“Today, we’ve done this,” Patti said, gesturing at the empty restaurant, where not one take-out or delivery order had been placed during the morning’s three-hour breakfast window.

“We’ve had no customers,” she said. “Our sales are down at least 70% since all this started, but today it’s more like 100%. And we had no take-out orders all day yesterday.”

Like many restaurateurs hit hard by a catastrophic decline in customers, the Dohertys have been working hard to adapt.

A sign along the highway in front of the restaurant touts parking spots available for curbside pickup. The restaurant has been offering some added specials to entice customers, including free coffee with breakfast or free cookies and bottles of water with lunch orders.

“You’re trying to draw people in,” said Glenn, 62, who has worked in the restaurant business since his teenage years. “But you’re trying to draw people who just aren’t here.”

Typically, the restaurant’s busy lunch rush is powered by workers from nearby businesses such as Florida Health Care Plans and Metra Electronics in Holly Hill. In the wake of the pandemic, many of those employees are working from home or have suffered a reduction in hours, Glenn said.

Patti and Glenn Doherty, owners of The Sandwich Shoppe in Ormond Beach, prepare a delivery order on Wednesday. In the wake of the coronavirus crisis, business has been down by at least 70%, but the couple is determined to keep the doors open. “I can’t stay open forever without making money, but I’ll die trying.” Glenn said. [News-Journal/David Tucker] |

“We did a lot of deliveries for those businesses, but now a lot of those folks are working from home,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot less people.”

The downturn also has hit the restaurant’s staffing, with the Dohertys’ two employees that help with making and delivering sandwiches and salads reduced to on-call status.

“We’ve been trying to work both of them at least a couple hours a day,” Patti said. “But yesterday was so bad we thought, ‘Maybe this is it.’”

Happily, the phone started ringing enough during the lunch hour on Wednesday that one of the workers, Kat Hamilton, was called to help behind the counter.

The Sandwich Shoppe in Ormond Beach. [News-Journal / C. A. Bridges] |

“It’s good news,” Hamilton said, assembling a roast beef chef salad special for a lunch customer. “I didn’t think I was working today until they called. It’s good that a lot of the regulars are still coming.”

Among the familiar faces was Kathi Cobb, an accountant at a nearby contracting business.

“I’m supporting them because a lot of companies are shutting down and that makes it really hard for them to keep up their delivery business,” Cobb said. “I come here probably four or five times a week. It’s good friendly service, good food.”

Cobb worries that additional restrictions designed to keep people will keep more of the shop’s regular customers at home, unable to offer that support.

As the lunch hour passed on Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a “Safer At Home” executive order calling for all Floridians to stay home except for essential services and activities.

“Then maybe the patrons who want to come out won’t be able to do it,” Cobb said.

The Dohertys watched the governor’s announcement with concern on the shop’s two TV screens behind the counter. The couple, who met three decades ago working at a restaurant in Punta Gorda, has endured assorted economic downturns and business challenges in the years since.

When they opened their first eatery in Daytona Beach in 2008, at the intersection of 10th Street and Derbyshire Road, it was against the backdrop of the Great Recession. Customers expected from nearby auto dealerships and businesses became harder to come by.

“But we hustled,” Patti said. “It was just Glenn and I. He was cooking and I was racing around delivering food. I would take platters of food to area businesses and offer free samples. We were giving away more food than we were selling, but it worked.”

After two additional moves, the restaurant opened in its current spot at 761 S. Yonge St. about three years ago. And now the couple is facing another challenge, one that doesn’t compare to previous situations, they said.

“We have no control over what’s happening now,” Patti said. “This is different (than 2008). There’s nobody to take any food to.”

On Wednesday night, after work, the couple expected to celebrate their wedding anniversary quietly at home after plans had to be canceled for dinner out at The Agustin Inn, a favorite spot in St. Augustine.

“Now we’re going to the Doherty Inn,” Patti said, managing a chuckle.

The next morning, the couple would be back at the restaurant, scrambling more than eggs, but also to keep the doors open.

“We’ll do anything and everything we can to keep The Sandwich Shoppe open for our customers,” Glenn said. The Dohertys have already applied for a Small Business Association loan and also are seeking additional financial assistance, they said.

At the same time, the Dohertys realize that many of the forces that ultimately will decide the restaurant’s fate are out of their hands, a situation that has characterized the pandemic throughout.

“What it comes down to is how fast the government can get these loans or grants out to small businesses,” Glenn said. “I can’t stay open forever without making money, but I’ll die trying.”

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