Nota Bene closed its doors on Sunday, Dec. 13, after five years in business. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
In the beginning of November, Nota Bene owner Victoria DeRoche began to come to terms with the fact that she would close the doors of her 5-year-old Shockoe Bottom restaurant. Announcing the news on social media, for the final farewell DeRoche was flooded with an outpouring of community support — a streak of sellout nights, receipts with messages like “stay strong,” and stories of first dates and engagements at the restaurant.
“I really had not looked at the restaurant or what it meant to people through the lens of others to that degree; it was very emotional,” she says. “It was a lot, and you’re trying to power through, but I definitely had to go in the back room a couple times and cry it out a bit and come back."
For DeRoche, the last weekend of service felt like a flashback to the days of normalcy, a buzzing, energetic, almost chaotic whirlwind she hadn’t experienced since the onset of the pandemic. Orders were cut off at 10 a.m. due to demand, the kitchen was a sea of tickets, and in three days the restaurant made in sales what it would typically make in three weeks.
“It was like a normal, busy restaurant service where you put your head down and get through it and at the end you’re having a shift drink,” she says, adding that Nota Bene is currently on the market with offers in play.
After switching to takeout service, transforming the intimate dining room into a market, being chronically understaffed, trying to lock down consistent cooks and not receiving a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, DeRoche says it was time.
“Death by a thousand cuts. I could not catch up.”
DeRoche, like many restaurateurs, had reached a point where she asked herself, how much more time, energy and money am I willing to sacrifice?
Brenner Pass chef and co-owner Brittanny Anderson plans to close temporarily for the winter on Dec. 19, one month after her other local restaurant, Union Hill’s Metzger Bar & Butchery, started its own seasonal hiatus.
As the cooler months have arrived, restaurants that had been relying on patios and outdoor tents to draw diners and income have noticed another drastic shift in business. Anderson says that in the past month, sales at Brenner Pass have dropped to about 25% of what they had been since the pandemic began. And in recent weeks, multiple Richmond restaurants have shut their doors after staff members either contracted COVID-19 or were in close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.
When considering comfort levels surrounding reopening the dining room at Brenner Pass, Anderson and her fellow owners turned to their staff.
“They’re the ones who have to put themselves at risk the most; it’s up to them,” Anderson says. "If they wanted to open indoors to still draw a paycheck, then we’ll do it. I will do whatever they needed to do.”
But the answer was clear.
While Brenner Pass will take a break this winter, its adjoining cafe, Chairlift, will reemerge as something new. In the beginning of January, Chairlift will be rebranded as a takeout and delivery concept called Black Lodge, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Anderson says diners can expect a more family-friendly, casual venture, but one that remains true to Brenner Pass and Chairlift's Alpine influences.
Anderson says her restaurants received both PPP funds and a first-round grant through the Richmond Recovers program for $10,000. She is currently applying for the second round of Richmond Recovers grants, as well as the Rebuild Virginia grant with awards of up to $100,000.
“That’s a big one and could be incredible if we could get it,” she says.
The bottom line, however, is that many restaurant owners have been faced with a double-edged sword: Risk the life of their business or the lives of others.
“You’re torn between wanting to do business and not go out of business,” Anderson says. “It’s a real hard thing to swallow. It sucks that the thing you love to do the most, the thing that brings you not only your career and joy and self and motivation, all those things, is the thing that can make people sick the most.”
During what is typically their busiest time of the year, sales will soon come to a halt, and Anderson says the holidays have exacerbated the situation. Asked if there has ever been a moment where the pandemic has felt more real, she responds without hesitation, “Right now.”
“I think in the beginning, it was getting used to [the pandemic] and you still had hope, and at this point it’s really dire straits,” she says.
For Michelle Williams, veteran chef and co-owner of the 25-year-old Richmond Restaurant Group, juggling multiple restaurants has been a constant battle.
“Once a week you make a plan and think, ‘Is this worth it?’ ” she says. “Every pivot, every change requires an immense amount of creativity, and each and every time it’s like opening a brand-new restaurant.”
Since the pandemic, RRG has received PPP loans for each of its establishments (its website lists eight restaurants in the group) in addition to Richmond Recovers grants from the city, but the amount of variables, curveballs and the sheer number of restaurants mean everything is taken day by day.
“I can’t even really put into words how many different factors go into each and every day,” Williams says. “Do you have enough staff to open, has anyone been exposed, is it going to rain? If you could add any scenario in your thoughts, it’s something that happens to us on a daily basis.”
Staff members at RRG have tested positive for COVID-19, and Williams says they are constantly tweaking procedures and protocols to improve and ensure the safety of staff and diners.
“We're trying to make the patios wintertime usable, but our main goal is to not make an outdoor space an indoor space,” she says, noting that this is the first time in her career there has been an issue that has affected every restaurant.
On Wednesday, Dec. 16, Richmond City Councilmember Stephanie Lynch hosted a dining industry town hall on Zoom. Joining Lynch were state Sens. Monty Mason and Jeremy McPike, 1st District Councilman Andreas Addison, Anthony Jimenez with the ABC Richmond Enforcement, and the city's Director of Economic Development, Leonard Sledge.
The first hour of the meeting was spent reviewing changes that are already in place in Virginia and locally, such as alcohol to go and more flexible ABC laws, before shifting to a brief input session from industry leaders including Jackie Bishop, owner of Fallout; Kevin Liu, owner of Carytown Cupcakes and co-owner of The Jasper; Trey Owens of Soul Taco; Gerald Abernethy of Hot for Pizza; and Austin Green, co-founder of Hatch Kitchen RVA.
A number of attendees questioned the action of the state and local government, or what they feel is a lack thereof, Owens noting that officials need to “think outside the box.” Owners expressed concerns related to rent and mortgage payments; the continued collection of meals tax — one of the highest in the state — the limiting of alcohol sales after 10 p.m., which Abernethy said has severely affected his business; a need for emergency pandemic pay for furloughed or unemployed staff; and more issues.
Currently, the city has set aside $2 million for the Richmond Recovers grant program to help support businesses, with $1.25 million allotted to restaurants. Sledge says that the focus will be on prioritizing applicants who have not received PPP or federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Emergency Advance funds. According to Sledge, there were 260 recipients of the first round of Richmond Recovers grants.
Jason Alley, the city’s recently appointed provisional policy adviser who is co-founder of Alley/Jones Hospitality and co-owner of Bingo Beer Co., also participated in the meeting.
The former chef-owner of Pasture and Comfort took the role in the beginning of November to liaise between Richmond small-business owners and city officials. Paid through CARES Act funding, Alley is unsure how long he will hold the position, but he says he hopes to break down the walls between city government and restaurants.
The main goal, he says, is getting through the winter and focusing on the months ahead in order to create “better and more robust" outdoor dining options such as additional parklets throughout the city and developing ways to ”liven up neighborhoods” and encourage more in-town activity.
“Winter will be super brutal, and we’re working on what we can do to limit the barriers to success as much as we can,” Alley says. “The big thing is [that] the mayor, the city at large recognizes this isn’t going to be a light switch. They are already very much thinking about next year."
The announcement of Nota Bene's closure was followed by that of Dutch & Co. Included on Richmond magazine's Best Restaurants list every year since its inception, the Church Hill standout will shutter permanently after having taken a hiatus this summer. Already running on low profit margins, restaurants in Richmond continue to stretch every dollar they have and hope for more long-term solutions rather than Band-Aids for an industry that has been hemorrhaging for almost a year.
"You get pivot fatigue,” says DeRoche, who adds that she doesn’t plan to reenter the restaurant world. “It’s too hard right now, and [to stay] you have to really, really, really love it to a degree where you’re willing to sacrifice your sanity for it. It’s demoralizing."
