Richard King with Ellerbe Fine Foods which calls Fort Worth’s Magnolia Avenue home stopped to talk with To Go host Brian Murnahan the day after Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the plans to allow certain businesses to open on May 1st. King let us know that they are planning to open a few days after the initial rollout.
Ellerbe has done an amazing job of anticipating and moving through the ups and downs associated with COVID-19. They identified the likely need to create a restaurant to go option and launched it ahead of the stay at home orders.
Please take a few minutes to watch your favorite sections of the interview or scroll to the bottom to watch it all the way through, its only 12 minutes.
Farm to Table – Ellerbe Fine Foods
During our recent visit with Ellerbe Fine Foods’ Richard King shared how Ellerbe’s got its start. Ellerbe was an early adopter of the Farm to Table concept allowing for fresh new menus as the seasons change.
Did you know that the location where Ellerbe is now located was a long-time service station before sitting empty for years before they took over the space.
Staffing
We also got to hear about the way staff adapted to the change in business operations. In fact, even a few new hires were able to weather the storm with Ellerbe. Richard brags on them a little and appreciates that he has gotten to know them better during the pandemic. The team may not have been serving tables, but they were serving their customers in the new restaurant to go.
Pivoting the Business
The arrival of Covid-19 was forecast for a few weeks ahead of the shut down in mid-March, but before Tarrant County and Texas started issuing orders to limit social interaction, Ellerbe Fine Foods had already started its restaurant to go efforts. People were already starting to get a little skittish about restaurants and bars when Ellerbe started to offer its to go services and just in time too. The next six weeks would be all restaurant to go and they excelled at their curbside service.
Reopening Ellerbe Fine Foods
So the hot topic as May begins is how do you reopen a restaurant or any business after it has been closed down since mid-March? King shares his thoughts on how Ellerbe Fine Foods will meet the challenge.
Community Support
Support has been coming into the folks at Ellerbe from staff, customers and the whole Fort Worth community. In fact, the business community along the southside has pulled together with help from the Near Southside organization.
Ellerbe Fine Foods Restaurant To Go
The restaurant to go model that Ellerbe has been using is sticking around. So if you’re not ready to sit in their beautiful restaurant, just give them a call and you can pick it up curbside.
One of the great things about Ellerbe to go is the fact that they partner with Melt Ice Cream, allowing you to get your dessert all in one stop. To make a reservation call them at 817-926-3663.
From The Top – Everything Mentioned Above and More
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