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the day when they shut everything down,” Wittner said. “I thought it may kill us. I was just sitting on the bench, trying to figure out things.”
Not only were further construction and the permitting process delayed, but Wittner was unable to secure any of the business grants that were being offered, most of which required owners to show loss of revenue. “When you have no sales, you cannot lose sales,” he said, adding that he spent an immense amount of time seeking help. “The help I got was zero dollars — zero-point-zero dollars.”
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Once Wittner made it through those tough months, he planned to open on July 14, Bastille Day, which is the national day of France, but the permit didn’t come through in time. Instead, he opened on Aug. 15 — just as appropriate, he said, because it is the birthday of the late Julia Child, the famous American chef known for her traditional French cooking. “We are born on the same day as Julia Child, who brought comfort food to America,” he said of his café.
But COVID-19 has continued to bring challenges even after the grand opening. Wittner worked on perfecting a vegan/gluten-free crêpe, and then, there was a shortage of buckwheat, which is the main ingredient in that particular recipe. “I had to reinvent a recipe that took me three to four months to create,” he said.
In addition, right now the café has a limited menu and reduced hours due to COVID-19 — on hold is an “amazing brunch menu” that Wittner said will debut later when he can open earlier in the day. Another difficulty is that “COVID has changed the way people eat. Right now, everybody wants delivery. Everybody wants to eat at home,” he said, adding that crêpes are not suitable for delivery because the dough will be too mushy upon arrival. “Quality is my biggest concern. I want to have the best quality possible.”
Despite the setbacks, Wittner pointed out some positives, such as the outdoor dining aspect, which he hopes the city of Worcester will make permanent. And, he said, local restaurant owners have become essential in helping each other through the difficulties of COVID, whether it’s
Jessica and Craig Valby in their new restaurant, Stave & Still, in Webster.
loaning supplies when ingredients are low or providing mental support.
For Aaron Peek and Carmela Manzaro, opening Ice Cream Pharm was a long time coming. Two years ago, the husband-andwife team decided to make Peek’s love of making ice cream into a full-time venture.
Peek grew up in the northeast corner of Texas about 100 miles outside of Dallas — hometown population, 400. “There’s nothing to do except make sweet tea and homemade ice cream. We used to make it in the sink at home,” he said.
But then, just as they were near opening in March, the coronaviurs forced a delay. Fortunately, they said, their contractors continued the work and then the couple just had to wait on the final inspections from the town. They finally were able to open on July 18, serving unique homemade hard ice cream that is made on location.
CHRISTINE PETERSON
With the regulations on indoor dining, Peek and Manzaro were concerned that customers would not want to go into the establishment to order or to eat, but they would like to soon have online ordering capabilities so they can meet their customers curbside. They are hopeful that their flavors of the week, nondairy and sugarfree offerings, and all-natural ingredients and specialties like ice cream pies, doughnut a la mode and Dole Whips will keep people coming back. They continue making the favorites — “Oreo chocolate chip cookie we can’t keep,” Manzaro said — and are trying to secure a liquor license so they can offer alcohol-infused ice cream. They’ll also try to make customer requests in small batches, Peek said, adding, “If you have an ice cream flavor, let us know.”
Despite the pandemic, the couple believe they have a business that will succeed, fueled by Peek’s love of creating different ice cream flavors and Manzaro’s previous experience in the industry — she owned an Italian restaurant in Worcester back in the 1980s.
around here, it’s all soft-serve or it’s not made on site,” Peek said. “Twelve hours after I make it, it’s ready to be served.”
Unlike the other proprietors, Jessica and Craig Valby, owners of Stave & Still at 131 Main St. in Webster, opened their restaurant because of the pandemic, not in spite of it. The two had owned an event production company in Florida — “an extremely lucra- tive and fun job,” she said — but everything changed because of COVID-19. With restrictions on the number of people allowed at gatherings, the couple watched as all their scheduled events for four years out were canceled.
Having some time on their hands, they flew to Massachusetts to celebrate Jessica’s mother’s birthday. Valby hadn’t been to her hometown of Webster for years, and during a drive through town, something just clicked.
They found a location in downtown Webster that had been vacant for about a year, put their house in Florida on the market and bought a home in Con-
Above, Carmela and Aaron Peek, co-owners of Ice Cream Pharm in Dudley. Below, the interior of Suzette Creperie & Café.
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Above, Peter Reno, owner of Olo Pizza, which is housed in the former Dacosta Pizza Bakery building, at 40 Millbrook St., Worcester.
CHRISTINE PETERSON
Below, Franklin Street Fare, with a painted food truck decor, in Worcester.
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necticut. They signed the lease for what would become Stave & Still on June 1 and opened just two months later, on Aug. 1.
“We knocked everything out and met all our timelines. For the most part, it’s better than we envisioned. It’s been a whirlwind,” Valby said, crediting the Webster town administrator with shepherding the project through completion.
Even with Massachusetts only in the beginning stages of reopening at the time, the couple didn’t see it as a challenge. They did talk about the pros and cons of opening a restaurant during a pandemic, and essentially starting their lives over, but eventually, she said, their “adapt-or-die mentality” won out.
What resulted was a completely reworked space that uncovered some of the building’s forgotten gems — such as the shiplap woodwork that was covered by some panels and an unused staircase landing leading to the second floor that they now use for access to the whiskey loft — as well as a menu that, according to its description, is “upscale yet approachable,” combining a speakeasy-style with Southern hospitality.
Since opening, the positive response has been “overwhelming,” she said, particularly with an outdoor patio where they can offer live entertainment and dining tables for those who do not want to eat inside the restaurant.
“One of the reasons we chose this space was because of the outdoor patio,” Valby said. “We saw
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that people were more comfortable outdoors. We definitely want it to feel like it was purposeful, instead of knee-jerk.”
At the Grid Hospitality Group, which operates most of the dining establishments on the Franklin Street block, including the Beer Garden, executives have made it their business to also purposely work around the challenges presented by the pandemic and limitations regarding dining. A vacant space at 72 Franklin St. in Worcester has been transformed into a restaurant that exclusively features takeout items only, and the menu is an eclectic range of international street food fare, including banh mi sandwiches, grain bowls, arepas, gyros, tacos and burritos. It officially opened on Aug. 17 and offers takeout, online ordering and delivery options.
The location had previously been home to Grid-owned Stix Noodle Bar, and Gary Benacquista, director of operations for Grid Hospitality Group, said they had been discussing what to do with the empty space. They knew they would have some challenges serving people in a sit-down restaurant, particularly because regulations at first limited dining to take-out only and then to outdoor seating. At the same time, he and Terrell Wilson, executive chef of Franklin Street Fare, were talking about all their favorite foods, and “we started putting two and two together,” Benacquista said.
Benacquista invited Paul Apaarian, with whom he collaborated on a restaurant a couple of years ago, to look at the Franklin Street space and he suggested making it look like the side of a food truck. Ryan Gardell, of Artifakt Studios, created and completed the design, and “it literally looks like a food truck inside a building,” Benacquista said.
For Franklin Street Fare, the process to opening was a little easier because the space had previously been a restaurant, according to Benacquista. “We moved pretty quickly. That was one of the silver linings of the shutdown. We just focused on basically trying to retool the area, make each space as safe as possible and make it COVID-compliant, and open as quickly as possible,” he said.
They have had some supply issues and the pandemic has required them to be flexible and
Clockwise from top left: Jessica Valby owner of Stave & Still drops in a watermelon ice ball for a tequila mocking bird cocktail (Christine Peterson); Olo Pizza on Millbrook Street is under construction (Christine Peterson); Suzette Creperie & Café, which recently opened in the former home of Weintraub’s Jewish Delicatessen (Ashley Green); Ice Cream Pharm in Dudley (Ashley Green).
creative, Benacquista said. “We’ve kind of had to pivot a little bit in creating the menu,” he said. But, he added, “you can’t really complain about it. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. Human lives are more important than anything. You have to accept a certain amount of interruption to the regular routine and figure out how to adapt and work around it.”
Over at 40 Millbrook St. in Worcester, the site of the former Dacosta’s Pizza Bakery, Pete Rano and business partner Richard Romaine are doing that as well, as they work on their new venture, Olo Pizza Neapolitan Pie Co., even as the pandemic continues. The two had discussed growing their existing restaurant, Smokestack Urban BBQ, possibly with a second location, but then decided to focus on a pizza-based eatery. They do not yet have an opening date, but hope to make an announcement within the next several weeks.
Construction began after they closed the deal in June, and with extensive renovations amid a pandemic, certain aspects, such as slower shipping times and inaccessible products, have been challenging, Rano said. They also have to space out the contractors to keep everything as safe as possible — “let the floor guys deal with the floor, let the paint guys deal with the paint, and try not to stack everyone on top of each other,” Rano said.
Although he and Romaine discussed whether it was right time to open a new restaurant due to the pandemic, “it’s not going to last forever. Let’s put the pedal to the floor and move forward. We’re in it for the long haul,” Rano said of the restaurant.
Wittner echoed those sentiments, saying, “I’m really happy overall I made it. Even if it’s tremendously difficult and challenging, if you are creative enough — I think I am — and you have a unique concept — we do — and if you have a vision for the long term — and I had a very clear vision — if I do all this, I’m convinced I will survive.”
All the owners agreed that adaptability and creativity during a pandemic is key, while still being operational. “You can do a passion project and do it in a way you’re keeping yourself, your staff and your community safe,” Benacquista said.
And for some, like the Valbys, as hard as the pandemic was for them job-wise, it gave them a reason to start their own passion project. “We actually opened this because of COVID,” Valby said. “If it weren’t for COVID, our event production company would still be booming, we’d be traveling all over the country, and we wouldn’t have done this.”
