An Industry Adapts

On March 17, New Hampshire restaurants and hotels were forced to close or pivot to a take-out only model under Governor Sununu's emergency stay-at-home order. NHLRA members share the creative ways they confronted crisis to survive.

The Common Man

In almost 50 years of providing hospitality in New Hampshire, we’d never found ourselves facing times like these. This abrupt change forced The Common Man family to make some difficult decisions. The hardest - furloughing more than 650 of our employees statewide. We closed many of our locations, reduced our menu offerings, and operated with a dedicated management team.

But with every challenge this pandemic presented, came the opportunity to be innovative, and we have worked every day to be creative while continuing to support our staff, our guests and our communities. To support our furloughed staff, whom we call STARS, we provided a family meal daily, cooking up a hot and homemade dinner for their household. From March through mid-May, we prepared more than 1,700 meals each week. We also donated $10,000 to our own Employee Emergency Assistance Fund, and donated all gratuities left on take-out orders to that fund. Some of those donations went towards purchasing gift cards to help STARS with emergency needs like groceries, personal care and baby supplies until their unemployment benefits were received. We extended health benefits, created delivery positions to secure hours for staff, and worked hard to bring staff members back as quickly as possible.

In partnership with the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association, and in support of fellow hospitality workers across the state, we committed $10,000 to the New Hampshire Hospitality Employee Relief Fund. This fund provided one-time grants to employees of the hospitality industry who were impacted by COVID19.

During such a difficult time, we wanted to spread positivity and kindness. We worked with local artist Stacey Lucas to create colorful signs with uplifting messages and posted them near our restaurants.

We honored our front line health care workers and first responders with a 50% meal discount, giving more than $8,000 in discounted entrees. We also donated family-size meals to local hospitals to feed doctors and nurses who were working around the clock.

It's truly taken an uncommon effort to achieve what we have, together, these past few months. From those who work the front lines, to teachers and students adapting to remote learning, to parents balancing it all at home, and those of us in the hospitality business and other essential services that fought to stay open to serve New Hampshire.

We’re touched by the kindness of our vendors and fellow hospitality businesses, and the support and generosity of our guests, and we’re so proud of the grit, drive and determination of the STARS in our Common Man family.

We’ll keep focusing on safely serving you, and our communities, during these challenging times. Be safe. Be well. Do good.

Click here for a message from Common Man founder Alex Ray.

Rek'lis Brewing Co.

Rek’-lis Brewing Co., located on Main Street in Bethlehem, NH, remained rek’-lisly resilient during the initial Covid-19 shutdown. Like other restaurants and breweries, Rek’-lis staff acted very quickly to create an online ordering system to offer delivery and curbside pick-up including beer which customers were very pleased about.

The team at Rek'lis Brewing Co. When the Governor gave breweries the green light to open for Phase 1 and outdoor seating, Rek’-lis waited a week to finish up a few Covid-19 projects which included; a new reservation system, a bigger outdoor seating area in the field adjacent to the brewery with a Cornhole Corral, a Brewshed with a new deck, additional seating in the beer garden, and the conversion of the front parking area into more seating. In addition, the brewery added parking spots for curbside pick-up and a waiting area outside. With these additional seating areas, Rek’-lis’s outside capacity grew to accommodate people socially distanced comfortably.

Part of our mission statement is supporting the community, so it only made sense for Rek’-lis to come up with ways to do so during this weird time. At weekly marketing meetings, a few ideas were brought to the table of how Rek’-lis could help the community during the shutdown. One of the ideas Nigel Manley, Spirit Manager, came up with was creating a fund for First Responders in Bethlehem, Franconia, Sugar Hill and Littleton. How? By creating Beer to Your Door t-shirts that customers could purchase to support the First Responders. With this fund, First Responders receive 50% off their meal at Rek’-lis.

Another program was Rek’-lis For The Children. During the week, while kids were remote learning from home, they got one free meal daily from the kids menu to go. Many children in the area were no longer receiving school lunch and this promotion helped families during this time.

Even during the shutdown, Rek’-lis continued to offer monthly tasting events, one being virtually through Zoom which was a great experience. And the next being outside with tickets being sold by table size. Coming up, Rek’-lis plans to have a soft opening in stages for the new expansion, and a Gin pairing in August.

For the latest on operating schedule, menus, upcoming events, be sure visit www.reklisbrewing.com and to

Moat Mountain Brewery

Re-opening indoors is no small task, and should never be treated as such, so we wanted to peel back the curtain of what we're doing.

Click the image for a video series highlting Moat Mountain's safety and sanitization steps! COVID-19 resource center for our clients and the public at large. We prepared and shared a vast library of information including resources on PPP, NH Stay at Home Universal Guidelines, FFCRA, Return to Work handbooks and much more COVID

We have hosted several free webinars to support COVID-19 best practices. Included within the resource center was information related to;

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP DURING

CRISIS MANAGEMENT

CORONAVIRUS AID, RELIEF, AND ECONOMIC

SECURITY (CARES) ACT

THE NEW REALITY OF THE WORKPLACE

THE 9 THINGS EVERY NH BUSINESS NEEDS TO

KNOW TO REOPEN

Independently, and also in collaboration with two of our insurance company partners (MMG Insurance and Cincinnati Insurance Co) we donated several thousand dollars to non-profit organizations and relief funds including: Ruck Up (Veterans support group), The Keene YMCA and the New Hampshire Hospitality Employee Relief Fund.

We have been very focused on helping not only our clients, but all businesses in our area as they deal with the myriad of regulations, guidelines and new protocols that became part of their daily business life due to COVID-19..

Join us for an upcoming webinar presented by Clark-Mortenson and the NHLRA. Click the image

Clark-Mortenson Insurance

From the onset of Coronavirus, we set up a free below to register.

19 related material.