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Salem restaurants are better prepared for the shutdown. But still have reason to worry

Lupe Alvarez (right), the owner of Dough Hook Bake Shop, and her employee Lupe “Lupita” Ortiz (left) stands in front of the plastic shield installed as a Covid precaution. (Jake Thomas/Salem Reporter)

When much of the Salem economy was shut down in March because of the pandemic, Tino Land told his close friend and business partner Augustin Razo that they had to return to basics.

That meant tacos in a pizza box.

Before opening Azuls Taco House, with two locations in Salem and one in Dallas, the duo operated food trucks using pizza boxes for large orders of tacos.

While restaurants were restricted to takeout or delivery during the shutdown, Land said they again turned to pizza boxes. They stuffed the boxes with traditional street tacos as well as surf and turf, bulgogi, spicy pineapple and others that were handed off to customers stuck at home. 

“The pizza boxes carried us through,” he said.

Azuls Taco House is again turning to pizza boxes to see it through a second shutdown of dining that started last week.

While restaurants in Salem and the rest of the state brace for more losses from another shutdown, many are better prepared this time.

Some restaurants have more easily pivoted their businesses toward takeout or have barely changed operations. Some restaurants even found new customers despite the pandemic restrictions after the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce helped drum up business.

With Covid transmissions continuing to top 1,000 new cases daily, the two-week shutdown order could last beyond Wednesday, Dec. 2. Despite their adjustments and supportive customers, many restaurants are hoping to just stay afloat until restrictions are loosened.

For the current shutdown, restaurant owners have Salem Eats, a Facebook page set up by the Salem chamber to connect restaurants with consumers.

The page was created on March 17, the same day restrictions were placed on restaurants. It features 210 local restaurants and has grown to 24,000 members. The page has had 48,600 posts and 1.5 million interactions that include people asking where to get dinner, pie or find large meals to feed their staff.

“We aimed to create a place where people can simply share and support our local eateries,” Zach Sielicky, the chamber’s membership manager, said in an email. “Our goal for the page was to help keep as many of our locally owned restaurants in front of people with the hope that people support them to keep them open during these hard times.”

Land said he got “a lot of love” from Salem Eats that helped get his business through the first shutdown without laying off any of his 14 employees. He said he’s getting ready to survive again, this time with pizza boxes full of nachos or quesadillas.

“We’re going after the family meals,” he said.

With the second shutdown order in effect, it’s business as usual for Lupe Alverez, the owner of Dough Hook Bakery.

Alverez said that her small shop, located in a strip mall at 1970 Lancaster Dr. N.E., was already geared for takeout anyway. But when the shutdown order came in March she cut the hours of one of her employees and prepared to take a hit. Her store hadn’t been open for even a year and she recalled thinking there was no way she could close it.

But Alvarez said she was surprised when business picked up with orders for her crème brûlée, marionberry, Oreo and other donuts. She had to hire three new employees to keep up with demand. Her staff tried delivering orders themselves but she said it was easier to use Grubhub and Uber Eats.

Now, mornings often start with orders streaming in from the delivery services.

“We’re busy,” she said.

But other restaurants weren’t as equipped to suddenly pivot their operations towards take-out and delivery and had to temporarily close in March. Among those was Sybil’s Omelettes, a decades-old diner located at 2373 State St., had long relied on dine-in service.

With the help of a federal pandemic loan, it reopened in May with magnetized signs for delivery cars, red heat-sealing delivery bags and to-go containers. The restaurant plans to continue its takeout and delivery until dine-in service could resume.

“This time we are better prepared for the shutdown than we were in May,” Stefani Shirley, Sybil’s Omelettes general manager, said in an email. She said the restaurant has a better understanding of how to offer takeout and delivery and it’s had strong community support.

Traci Kautz, the manager of Lum Yuen, said the Chinese restaurant laid off 90% of its staff after the first shutdown order left it unclear how many takeout orders would come in. Some days, the restaurant, located at 3190 Portland Rd N.E., saw only a handful of customers, she said. Other days, 50 would arrive in a matter of hours, she said.

“Each day was different,” she said. “Each day was a rollercoaster.”

She said that before the pandemic, about 30% of Lum Yuen’s business was takeout, and that increased slightly during the shutdown.

For the current shutdown, Lum Yuen laid off seven servers, said Kautz. While there is less overhead from washing linens and dishes, it’s still not making up for the lost business, she said.

Kautz said that she’s expecting the current shutdown to last more than the planned two weeks and will instead stretch into next year. In the meantime, she said the restaurant, which opened in 1974, will get through the difficult times with help from supportive customers.

“All I ask is that the people of Salem help keep our heads above water,” she said.

Contact reporter Jake Thomas at 503-575-1251 or [email protected] or @jakethomas2009.

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