Asheboro, NC - Jerry Southard has been at Hop’s Barbecue for 49 years since he was 14 years old. Nothing he is seen during that time has come close to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hop's Barbecue

“I’ve never seen anything do what (the pandemic) has done to businesses and to the lives of our customers,” said Southard, who bought the iconic restaurant in 1990. “It took its toll and it’s been difficult. But we’ve survived and didn’t have to close.”

Challenges Hop’s faced included, first, closing interior dining temporarily, then reopening at 50-percent capacity. During the closure, Southard remodeled the dining room while serving customers take outs from a hastily routed drive-thru.

Cancelation of downtown annual events such as Asheboro’s Fall Festival, parades, Christmas on Sunset, seasonal car shows, and programs occurring at the Sunset Theatre also affected revenues.

Despite everything, Southard has continued to serve the public without reducing jobs. In fact, he has added items to the menu and taken on catering opportunities.

Dustie Gregson, the owner of The Table Farmhouse Bakery, used the pandemic challenges as a learning experience. “It was a place to reset,” she said. “It’s good to re-evaluate, to learn how to work smarter, and become more efficient.”

Changes at The Table include menus made with a different paper, new cleaning procedures, and socially distanced tables. On days when the weather is good, patio dining is popular.

the table

Don Simmons, the owner of Magnolia 23, acknowledged that 2020 has been a “very difficult year. We’ve made a lot of changes and adjustments.”

His small restaurant is now closed to indoor dining but provides take out services and outdoor dining when weather permits. Despite limitations to the customer base, Simmons said he has not reduced his staff and had kept them busy with catering jobs.

With the increase in COVID-19 cases locally in Randolph County, Simmons says everyone “needs to take this seriously. This affects the whole world as a public health matter. I would like to open the inside of my restaurant, but I care about people. You can always make a dollar, but you can’t bring a life back.”

magnolia 23

Some of the changes at The Flying Pig Food & Spirits may become permanent, said co-owner Barbara Gallimore. Those include takeout orders and weekday lunch hours.

“We had to (make changes),” she said. “If you cannot adapt, you can’t survive. You do what you can to make things palpable.”

The most difficult adjustment created by the pandemic, Gallimore said, is the 50-percent reduction in occupancy. “We have half the number (of diners), but our bills aren’t 50 percent.”

Rather than reducing staff, Gallimore said they have added employees to be outside hostesses and help with extra cleaning measures. With limited space inside, customers waiting for tables must now practice social distancing on the sidewalk.

-Larry Penkava, Contributing Writer