By Victoria Gaither
A year after Gov. Phil Scott ordered restaurants and bars to close due to the coronavirus, March 16, 2020, two restaurant owners in Killington and one in Rutland looked back on a year of challenges, changes, and Covid-19 precautions.
“It was a challenging year, last year being our first year open and then being shut down last spring due to covid,” Tom Moore, co-owner of Hops on the Hill in Killington, said. Moore said he and co-owner Buddy Herron’s first priority was clear. “We wanted to keep our employees employed, so we focused on take-out; that did well for us.”
Once indoor dining resumed at a limited capacity, the two men then focused on giving guests the best experience.
“People can get food anywhere, but we want guests to have a true Vermont food experience,” Moore said.
Both Moore and Herron are firm believers in doing business with locals. “We source our food and beer from Vermont and local suppliers,” Herron said. For example, the doughnut holes used in the popular Maple Breakfast stout drink come from Jones’ Donuts and Bakery in Rutland.
It’s the Vermont craft beer that keeps Jeff Brown and Chris Lajaunie coming back to Hops on the Hill. Both men were visiting from Massachusetts to ski at Killington. “They have the best wings,” Lanaunie said of Hops.
Although Brown initially wasn’t too sure about dining out, his mind was changed when he saw the policies and precautions put in place. “They took all the precautions, social distancing, tables spread out,” he said, which made all the difference in him feeling safe and comfortable.
In downtown Rutland, it’s all about the guests and employees for restaurant owner Donald Billings.
Billings, who owns Roots the Restaurant and The Bakery in Rutland and Mountain Merchant/Cru in Killington as well as the Bomoseen Lodge and Taproom in Castleton, is busy preparing for outdoor dining come April 1.
He talked about how he took a risk last April in renting a tent from a local company for outdoors dining. “We were busy,” Billings said, calling the experiment a success.
Always thinking outside the box, Billings added live music, too. “We never did live music, so we had live music twice a week last summer, and it was packed.”
Not only were guests top priority, so were his workers. “I had to keep people working,” he said.
This sentiment didn’t go unnoticed, said Camille Welch, who works at The Bakery. “The general thought about Donald is he is truly concerned about his employees and wellbeing.”
He is also a big supporter of arts and community projects, so he employed artists to paint murals inside the restaurant. At the same time, guests dined and experienced live art while social distancing and wearing face masks. He also changed his menu to adapt it for take-out and push forward to creating new opportunities.
Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce & Economic Development of the Rutland Region (CEDRR) Lyle Jepson said he was impressed to see the entrepreneurial spirit at work.
“Most restaurants carefully restructured staff patterns, concentrated on take-out, and took advantage of the Paycheck Protection Plan,” he said.
President of the Killington Pico Area Association Vicki Baraiolo agreed. “We believe businesses have found it difficult, but we’re proud of how resilient many have been,” she said.
Baraiolo is currently planning the KPAA’s annual wine festival weekend with the Killington Wine Trail this summer.
Unexpectedly, Moore and Harron at Hops on the Hill actually like the 50% occupancy rule. “We don’t think we will go back to having more people in the restaurant really; this is working out very well for us,” Moore smiled.
According to Upserve, a company that provides restaurant managerial services, during the pandemic 69% of America’s restaurants updated and pared down menus for online ordering. Upserve added that successful restaurants also took to social media to attract customers and offer discounts.
Social media isn’t Donald Billings’ thing. “I know nothing about that,” he laughed, but his Instagram page tells a different story. Weekly dinner deals pop up across his feed, @rootsrutland.
The same goes for Hops on the Hill: their Instagram page is active and encourages people to come in for merchandise, food, and specials.
All three men are grateful to make it through a challenging season. They aren’t looking back, rather, forward.
