Reopening Fishers: Restaurants & Gyms

Writer / Seth Johnson

As many Fishers bars and restaurants open back up, the plan is to continue satisfying dine-in and carryout needs alike.

Known much more for their dine-in, Wolfies Grill had to completely shift gears when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

“We’re finally at the point that we’ve got that down, but that was a whole change, just learning how to do carryout,” says Wolfies Grill owner Scott Wolf.

While he’s excited to welcome patrons back to his lakeside locations, Wolf says that carryout will still remain an option for those who prefer it.

“I think some people aren’t going to be comfortable, and we understand that and are going to have curbside,” Wolf says. “We’ll have that available, but we also want you to come in. I’m optimistic it’s going to be good, and I think we’re going to get through this.”

After opening in February, Ohana Donuts & Ice Cream was forced to change its course right out of the gate. This was made a little bit easier, however, due to the business’s meager staff.

“Being so small and so new, we were able to adapt on the fly and really juts changed our business model,” says Ohana Donuts & Ice Cream owner Nate Haugh. “For about the first two weeks, there was some panic. But after we got a little bit of momentum going through the carryout and the online ordering, that really eased my pain.”

Ohana Donuts & Ice Cream now plans to open a food truck, in anticipation of any further hurdles.

“We want to capitalize on the good weather right now and take advantage of every opportunity that we have to bring in some sales,” Haugh adds. “So, we figured going to people is probably our best bet right now.”

While carryout and liquor store sales have certainly come in handy for Sun King Brewing, co-owner Clay Robinson is happy to have his beer back in bars and restaurants again.

“Being able to have people back in our taprooms is huge for us,” Robinson says. “Bars and restaurants reopening is also huge for us. So the combination of those two things is positive. People really seem to want to get out and are starting to figure out how to navigate it.”

This being said, carryout will always be an option with Sun King as well.

“We have a focus still on our to-go program because there are people who aren’t comfortable going out,” Robinson says. “If you aren’t comfortable going out, we still can deliver directly to your trunk with curbside.” Like many other local businesses, Fishers gyms and fitness centers have been forced to pivot from the old way of doing things.

Located at The Yard at Fishers District, Fishers’ CycleBar found success from renting out their equipment to devoted members.

“The day after we closed, I had our manager put out an email to rent bikes,” says Fishers CycleBar owner Amanda Moor. “Less than 24 hours later, we rented all 45 bikes in the studio. So that helped with cash flow.”

Since reopening the Fishers CycleBar, Moor has taken necessary social distancing precautions.

“Our members that are back still stress that they don’t feel fully comfortable with 45 people in our small studio at one time,” Moor says. “So we have to listen to that and adjust accordingly.”

The Max Challenge of Fishers has also put necessary social distancing protocols into place, explains co-owner Sheila Tunison.

“We actually have our mat all set up so that we have pathways for people to get to X’s that are on the mat,” she says. “We have seven-foot distancing between the X’s so that people can get to their space, and then they can also leave from their space, all while social distancing.”

Max Challenge is also instructing members to bring their own water.

“They take their water, sweat towels and things like that to their space with them, so we don’t dismiss people in the class to go get drinks of water and things like that,” Tunison says.

Like many other gyms and fitness centers, the Fishers YMCA has shifted focus to providing online instruction.

“Within that first week, we started developing virtual programming and partnering with Les Mills to do at-home workouts for our members and for the community as well,” says Fishers YMCA executive director Jake ReardonMcSoley. “We developed a large content library for our YMCA to do online.”

In terms of their summer programming for kids, Reardon-McSoley says some adjustments definitely had to be made.

“We actually are not doing summer camp this year,” he says. “We are offering something that’s called Summer Childcare. We’ve really made massive adjustments to what we normally would do.

“All of our staff are given a temperature check, wear masks and have medical screening questions when they come in,” he adds. “Same thing with the kids. They’re not required to wear a mask but we do have social distancing throughout the day.”

IN ESCROW

IN ESCROW