Restaurant Association

Jerry Smith

Submitted

The restaurant rescue business

By Gene Marrano

Putting a lifelong passion and a background in analytics to good use.

The Roanoke Regional Restaurant Association isn’t a trade group but a consulting firm with offices in Blacksburg and Roanoke – and the brainchild of Jerry Smith, who works with a small handful of eateries at one time, locally and elsewhere (including Denver recently), on makeovers and improved business plans. “We go in and help restaurants that are struggling with whatever they might have a need for.” It’s done on a contract basis says Smith, who has an MBA in business analytics and worked in the industry while in college. He left a related 7-year corporate stint in northern Virginia to start his own firm.

Chef T – Torrece Gregoire – has been executive chef at Radford University’s Dalton Dining Hall, the chef for The Black Hen & Bar Blue

in Blacksburg (known for fine food) and a former contestant on the “Hell’s Kitchen” TV show. Her own restaurant in St. Paul (Wise County) fell prey to the pandemic. Now she’s also working as a consultant/partner with Smith on projects. He was a fan of the show and says he can walk into a place and start to sense right away what needs to change. “But I’m nice when I critique people,” unlike he says the Gordon Ramsay approach.

In Blacksburg Smith recently worked with the Centro Taco Bar on a business model as it embarked on a major expansion (which includes more outdoor seating), “helping them to grow responsibly and reasonably, not too much at one time.” He’s also consulting with the Black Hen on becoming more cost effective, and with the Bull & Bones restaurant/ brewpub in Christiansburg, owned by the same group that operates the Black Hen.

Survival for many eateries these days means developing a “strict plan of action,” and adhering to it as everyone starts to emerge from the tighter pandemic restrictions. Action plans that might normally look at the next 6 months are being constructed for 30 days at a time he notes. Food supply prices have varied wildly due to production issues associated with the pandemic – a case of chicken for example says Smith has recently doubled in price (production plants like Tyson were hit hard by COVID) – “while beef is down to pennies on the dollar.”

Some of the takeout models like Uber Eats and DoorDash don’t really work for many he contends, as they eat away at profit margins. “They’re losing money,” in some cases says Smith, who urges clients NOT to sign contracts, and to let those delivery companies make up the difference. He says many eateries “don’t know they can do that. We turn the tables.”

Some establishments without significant savings didn’t make it through the past year. Smith urges client to put aside at least $5000 every month and not touch it if they can. “A lot of restaurants are hanging on by a thin thread. The federal government helped with PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) … but it may not happen again. Think smart.”

The outlook from DRI: Downtown Roanoke Incorporated Marketing and Communications Coordinator Jamie Clark says, “things are definitely picking up,” in regard to what DRI is hearing from local restaurant operators, especially on the weekends, “[they] are nearly back to normal.” Several promotions to lure diners back to downtown eateries are planned says Clark. Day time weekday traffic has still been a struggle for some, with many office workers still remote as of mid-April. “Obviously, we’re concerned that it might be permanent [for some]. We’re keeping an eye on it.”

Several venues have indeed launched during the pandemic; that’s encouraging notes Clark: “Its probably close to a normal level of businesses that have opened up.” With downtown Roanoke restaurants and small retail shops learning how to pivot over the past year as needed to stay afloat, “some of that has proven successful, curbside pickup and takeout [for example] – a lot of the businesses will probably keep those practices in place.”

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