As part of an ongoing Restaurant Roundup series, the Greater Wilmington Business Journal spoke with Evans Trawick, owner of Cape Fear Seafood Company, about the impact of COVID-19 on his company.

GWBJ:  What ultimately led to your decision to close the three local restaurants temporarily as of March 17, while the North Raleigh location has remained open?

Trawick:  "I decided to close our Wilmington locations based on the information available at the time and the mandate to close our dining rooms from the Governor. Initially the Raleigh location closed as well. They were able to resume operations prior to us simply because Eddie and Matt (franchisees) are partners and could run their operation by themselves. My operation is much larger and I could not do it without employees being involved.

GWBJ: All local CFSC locations have now reopened as of Monday, May 4. How difficult was it to get all three locations back up and running?

Trawick:  "We have a great team in place who have been eager to get CFSC back to business. Having been through this several times in the past, i.e. hurricanes, we really understand what it takes to rebuild our locations and begin serving. It takes us a couple days to prepping at each location but that doesn’t reflect the weeks of discussions and planning to make sure we are safely taking care of ourselves and our guests."

GWBJ:  Has the majority of your staff returned to their previous positions?

Trawick: "Yes! We were fortunate to be able to work with a great team at Live Oak Bank (special thanks to Kirstin Woodell-Mathews) and make our way through the PPP Loan process.

"This has allowed CFSC to rehire and pay (working or not) approximately 95 percent of our pre COVID-19 staff. We attempted to rehire everyone but had a few that declined our offer of employment for various reasons."

GWBJ: What measures are you taking to keep your staff and customers safe?

Trawick: "Besides following the current CDC and National Restaurant Association guidelines on social distancing, sanitation, etc., we have developed work groups in our stores to prevent any possible spread to all of our employees if a team member becomes ill.

"In the case of a team member becoming ill we will be able to isolate very quickly everyone that has had contact with that person and contain the possible spread."

GWBJ: How difficult is it to conform to the current regulations allowing only curbside pick-up and delivery?

Trawick: "Very. CFSC is an upscale casual dining concept focusing on excellent food, flavors and southern hospitality. Our reputation is strong in the communities we serve, and we hold ourselves to an extremely high level of quality and service. We do not want to compromise that during this new normal of curbside pick-up so we are focusing on doing what we do and trying to carry that into this reality as best we can."

GWBJ:  Are you serving your full menu or a menu designed specifically for pick-up?

Trawick: "No. We have developed a to-go curbside menu to help deal with some supply chain issues and ease the prep and inventory levels in the restaurants. The menu can be found on our website and will be updated weekly if the need arises."
 
GWBJ:  Financially speaking, how big of an impact has COVID-19 had on your businesses?

Trawick: "Huge. We expect full year revenue to be down dramatically from previous years. 2020 is about survival for our company. I have owned restaurants in the Wilmington area for 18 years, we opened Cape Fear Seafood Company in January of 2008 right before the great recession, and I have never seen anything impact the hospitality industry like this."

GWBJ:  What lessons have you learned that will better prepare you for future disasters?

Trawick:  "I am still learning and evolving every day. We have been blessed to serve this community for 12 years as Cape Fear Seafood Company and I believe strongly that we will see the other side of this. Many in my industry may not be as lucky. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone effected by this and we wish everyone a quick and safe return to normal."

GWBJ:  When we think about what our “new normal” might look like, are there some changes that you foresee happening within the restaurant industry as a result of COVID-19?

Trawick:  "The 'new normal' will certainly look much different than 'normal.' I believe that the hospitality landscape will be forever changed by this. Guests may not notice it when dining with us in the future, but every aspect of our operation has been and will continue to be reevaluated.

"Supply chains will be affected, staffing will change, some of your favorite dining locations will be gone, availability of product will be inconsistent, and the list goes on and on. For CFSC we will do our best to maintain the things that have made us successful even if there has to be a tweak or two here and there."

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