Photo courtesy Rostov's Coffee & Tea
Tammy Rostov, Owner of Rostov’s Coffee & Tea
Rostov’s Coffee & Tea was started by my father in 1979 in Carytown — originally, we were Carytown Coffee & Tea. He was a single parent while I was growing up, so I was raised in the shop. When he passed away in 1998, I sold the wholesale division and the name to his wife. I kept the retail store and renamed the business after the family.
In March, I closed the inside of the store and the coffee bar. I shortened hours, switched to online preorders and curbside pickup, and introduced discounted shipping costs. So far, it’s been working.
Over the last five years, our wholesale has grown to be about 35% of our business, but now most of our restaurant clients are closed. Recently, some businesses have begun to offer provisions boxes with market items. We will be in a breakfast box from A Sharper Palate, and Nota Bene is selling market goods like our Nota Bene Coffee Blend.
The future is harder to talk about — my crystal ball hasn’t been working so great lately. It involves a lot of let’s wait and see. My first priority is to make sure that I can keep my employees and customers safe, so we will continue curbside and all these other measures until opening is safe. —As told to Piet E. Jones
Elianna Benavidez, Student at The Kitchens at Reynolds Community College
I originally went to Virginia State University for accounting. After I got cancer about two years ago, I decided to go back to school for pastry.
My family owns El Caporal Mexican Restaurants here in Richmond, so food has always been a part of my life. When I want to relax, I bake. I really enjoy making Hispanic breads and trying to re-create something meaningful, like conchas.
This is my second full semester in culinary school. Currently, we’re all cooking at home and utilizing what we have. We pick up ingredients we need once a week from the school, then watch tutorials from our instructors, make videos and upload them to be graded.
It’s a little frustrating because we normally cook at home [for enjoyment]. I do appreciate what the school has done, though.
This semester, I got an internship at Westhampton Pastry Shop. They are still going strong. If anything, the pandemic has reinforced my desire for this field. If bakeries can survive this, they can survive anything. —As told to Eileen Mellon
Photo by Tyler Darden courtesy Rappahannock Oyster Co.
Travis Croxton, Partner of Rappahannock Oyster Co.
This has been extremely damaging on so many levels. In one week, we had to furlough over 300 people in multiple states and lost 98% of our oyster distribution. Our restaurants have remained open for curbside [pickup] with limited staff as we try and keep our name out there and give our employees hope.
Our oyster farm is a living thing. It can’t be mothballed or put on hold. The market-size oysters that we would be harvesting now are taking up cage space that we need freed up for the next crop. Our farm is in the middle of a logjam of tremendous proportions. No matter how much we pivot, we can’t replace the volume that we were distributing prior to this.
For now, we are trying to get restaurants to realize they can shift their model — they don’t need to sell shucked oysters on the half shell — they can sell bags for folks to take home and either shuck or grill. An early jolt of “How can I help?” from Mike Ledesma at Perch and Vino Market in Midlothian gave us the affirmation that we can do this, and now it’s time to start adapting and pushing harder than we ever have. —As told to PEJ
Chris Ray, Co-founder of Center of the Universe Brewing Co.
We have almost completely lost all distribution to restaurants, except for those doing growler fills and to-go beer. Restaurants used to represent a significant chunk of our sales volume; now that number has shrunk to single digits. It breaks my heart to say that, I know these are extremely difficult times for them. We have been reaching out and offering our brewery as a pop-up pickup spot.
This whole ordeal has been a challenge. That said, we have a much clearer understanding of how strong our fan base is, which we will be forever grateful for.
Going forward, this is going to be a long and slow rebuilding process. Consumer confidence is going to be a massive hurdle. Hopefully, with industry-wide cooperation, we can achieve that level of comfort in the quickest possible way. —As told to PEJ
Carmen Ferraro, Sales Representative for SAWM Imports
I travel a lot to visit clients, share new wines and tell their stories. I love getting in front of people — there’s a lot you can say to describe wine, but nothing compares to trying it firsthand. I take part in a lot of tastings, wine dinners and classes, especially on the weekends.
It’s one of my favorite parts of the job.
I first started to see the effects in mid-March, when tastings and classes began to cancel. My partner is a bar manager, and his restaurant shut its doors — it was surreal. My clients are a huge chunk of my social life, I miss interacting with them. Going from visiting them every day to staying inside has been a huge change. Now, I mostly call and send emails. Business has obviously slowed with restaurants closing. I try to be sensitive to my clients, what they need may change from day to day. —As told to EM
