So the past few months have seen changes and confinement and government loans and riots and protests and a continual increase in the number of positive Covid 19 cases in Alabama. We are just as tired of not being able to run our business and lives the way we want to as well. So many things have changed in such a short time that very few people, if anyone, actually knows the right way or even best way to go about things. We are playing it by ear and using our best judgement to make sense of all the craziness and the see-saw of what is ok and what isn’t.
We have been with you and you with us through all of it. Let’s keep that up and we will get to the end of this together! We have enacted some new rules and lots of new policies that are not popular with anyone, but we are complying with the Alabama Dept. of Health as well as the Jefferson County Health Dept.’s rules and regulations. (Thank you for helping us stay on the straight and narrow!)
We are complying with the above list as well as maintaining half capacity until at least July 9th (which is the current date that that rule has been extended to), though it is likely to last longer than that according to my health inspector.
We have switched to all disposable things. The only thing that will be reused are the salt and pepper shakers (available upon request only and will be sanitized when we bus and sanitize the table). We can unfortunately not use the fountain drink machine either so we are limited to bottles only of select sodas or water.
We had a small gathering for our 2nd birthday the night the curfew began and things went well. To comply with the curfew and still have time to sell food, we opened for lunch two days and closed at 6pm. After having spoken with the chief of police of Irondale, he convinced me to go ahead and open for normalish hours through the curfew. We are going to update them on Facebook and the website around the time of this posting.
There are so many things happening right now, I do not think I can cover them all. We are going to have to raise our prices on some things on the menu due the the fact that the cost of using all disposable items is considerably more expensive than reusable things. The price of ground beef has increased by 45% (luckily I managed to lock us in a price on beef before it went up 300% like it is now for us).
We do not want to give anyone the impression that we are gouging prices so the increase is minimal and unfortunately necessary because our prices are based upon a system that does not account for disposable items or such a significant increase in our primary ingredient (beef).
With many restaurants reopening in Birmingham, we are going to follow suit here using their same rules (which Chief Atkinson verbally agreed were acceptable) in that there should be no large congregations and to give every customer leaving after curfew a receipt to prove that they were doing something “essential” before like eating and maintaining your sanity by getting out of the house for a few.
Aside from limited capacity, disposable everything and now amended hours, everything is working out ok. We will continue to offer curbside throughout all of this. However if you want to come inside and join us for a drink or two (we are still selling full bottles of liquor, 6 packs of beer and bushwacker/margaritas to go).
I feel like I have been more busy during quarantine than I was beforehand. It has my cats being especially needy when I am at home. Yes, they are adorable but by the time they have me around; they are extra needy.
We will be using social media to keep you all up to date when anything new transpires. Please check our Instagram feed and the Facebook page. We still have weekly specials. We still have brunch specials and the pasta Tuesday too.
Please just understand that if something seems unreasonable, it might be, but it is not our rule and to be here for everyone, we follow their rules in order to remail open.
You might have caught this on my Instagram, but I really like this picture, so have it again!
Until next time, we are here for you and so grateful that you have been and will continue to be here for us.
Ever your servant,
Berkley