Shutdown work

It’s been more than six weeks since restaurants around the state have been able to welcome guests to dine in their establishments.

Some have been operating with skeleton staffs, hoping to bring in enough orders through takeout or delivery to stay afloat.

Others have been using the downtime from the coronavirus pandemic to make some changes to their businesses as they will be allowed to entertain guests yet again come Monday.

“It made it a lot easier,” said Brian McGalliard, one of three trustees of Fraternal Order of Eagles, 320 N. Meridian St, Portland. “We would have had to close down for an extended period of time.”

McGalliard said the Eagles club has done about $15,000 in renovations to the building. It replaced the old 1940s-style tile flooring in the social quarters with a gray-stained, wood, commercial-grade flooring. In the same area, the two-tone paint on the wall was transformed from a white with Carolina Blue color to a gray and white wall with white trim.

The bar was replaced as well. The wood-grain topper is gone, and it has been turned into an black epoxy surface that resembles marble.

It’s been a long-needed update to the building which is home to the Elwood Haynes mural on its north wall.

“About 25 years ago,” McGalliard said of when the renovations should have been done. “Needed it badly. It really did. (There were) missing floor tiles and stuff.

“Nothing good is coming from COVID-19, but did give us time to get some much-needed remodeling.”

The project was paid for completely out of the club’s fund.

“A lot of this credit goes to prior trustees,” McGalliard said. “They’ve done a heck of a job in five, 10 years to turn the club around, give us enough money to do this.

“Thanks to them this is available to happen.”

Eagles, which has a full kitchen that was also thoroughly cleaned, will open Monday by state guidelines set forth by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb. McGalliard said the club can handle a crowd of about 140 at full capacity in its social quarters.

Under Holcomb’s order, restaurants can operate at 50% capacity, but the bar must remain closed.

Although McGalliard says limiting the number of patrons to 70 won’t be an issue, the organization is ready to open its doors again.

“We miss the camaraderie,” he said. “Looking out for the older folks. It’s definitely a void missing for a lot of people.”

Richards Restaurant, located at 1615 N. Meridian St., Portland, has also taken the time to update its dining area.

The flooring has been stripped and waxed. Some of the walls had gotten soft so they were replaced with drywall and painted.

“It’s something … it was time for it to be done,” said Deeda Yoder, vice president of Richards Restaurant. “Wasn’t a crisis kind of thing, but it was an opportunity so we used it.”

Yoder, who oversees 11 locations throughout northeast Indiana, including Decatur, Bluffton and Muncie, said most of the updates could have been done under normal business circumstances with exception of replacing the wall.

In the restaurant industry, diners drive business, and since Richards has had to reduce its offering to a limited menu with carryout and curbside pickup, the chain has been hurting.

“We have lost 70 percent of our business,” Yoder said, noting seven locations —Bluffton, Warsaw, Columbia City, Huntington, Auburn, Muncie and New Haven — closed completely. Bluffton and Warsaw are set to reopen Monday.

As for the other five, Yoder said they’re going to wait to see how the public reacts and what kind of business the company gets back.

“It’s been challenging,” she said. “It’s not been financially beneficial to be opening. We just felt it was important to provide that to the public service.

“We were able to cover the costs of food and labor but that’s it.”