Parky's Smokehouse Takes Proactive Steps to Quickly Mitigate COVID-19 Restrictions

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, Mike Baran, MBA, CPA, CGMA, President and owner of Parky's Smokehouse in Lebanon, IN, sprang into action -- aided every step of the way by RestaurantOwner.com.

The second quarter was "rough -- way down like all restaurants -- but we recovered nicely in Q3," says Baran. "Indiana hasn't been as restricted as most states, though. We've been at 50% dine-in capacity since late summer. The worst part was having to layoff over 15 people on March 16th. That was the low point in my professional career."

When Covid gathered force Parky's shut down on Sundays for carryout and delivery, Baran recalls. "When we reopened at 25% dine-in capacity in May we opened Sundays again -- one of the busiest times of the week, but closed on Mondays due to lack of staff. We have the demand to open on Mondays but not enough people to make it work without paying too much in OT."

Parky's features a scratch menu, with cooks preparing their own barbecue sauces, rubs, dressings, sides, soups, and desserts. They smoke all their meat on-site and source certified Angus beef.

'Lived at the Restaurant'

In grappling with the effects of the pandemic, Baran says he "lived at the restaurant for several weeks." He's also quick to credit Parky's GM, Krista Lalas Ray, for being at the restaurant "every day during the pandemic. She was steady as a rock and never missed a beat." The Parky's Team, led by Mike and Krista, created a flurry of activity during that time which included the following:

• On day one he instituted contactless, curbside carryout service, organizing his parking lot and purchasing new signage. The restaurant bought new software for online ordering and texting and launched a website on BentoBox.

• Baran implemented the MarginEdge management system to help with inventory and cost control.
• He ordered different to-go packaging with clear lids to render expediting more efficient.
• They immediately negotiated different payment terms with their prime vendor, Gordon Food Service. "Gordon helped us through March, April, and May until business picked back up, and made sure we had the proteins we needed to continue serving our menu." US Foods, their secondary supplier, was also helpful.
  "We were hunting every day to find applicable products at prices we and our customers could live with," Baran continues. "We were sourcing proteins from Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky." Mike also negotiated a mortgage payment deferment with their partner bank, Old National Bank. "We handled both of these right away, so we knew we'd have the cash flow to continue to run and invest in the business where needed." Mike credits Old National Bank with being "extremely flexible and helpful with negotiating our deferment."

• His team, led by Krista, strategically rearranged their indoor dining room, scheduled more live events, and filled up the patio dining on weekends. "We focused on cross-training staff, especially managers, so everyone could handle whatever the days throw at them."
  Krista's goal was to make their operation "the cleanest, safest restaurant in the state. We are Trust20 certified, and our staff does a phenomenal job keeping our facility cleaned and sanitized." Indeed, Parky's now closes in-door dining from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. each day for additional cleaning, and dinner prep.
• Having 26 team members pre-pandemic, Parky's staff has become much more efficient, and now operates with 16 people.
• The Parky's Team instituted contactless delivery, then shifted to DoorDash. "We also are fully integrated between DoorDash orders and Toast. We tried GrubHub and Uber Eats in our area but they didn't pick up orders. GrubHub failed on 30%-plus of our orders. We had to fire them to save our brand."
• Krista and Mike also introduced a pair of virtual-kitchen concepts -- The Smoked WingHouse and Connor's CookHouse -- to offset the diminished, business lunch crowd and slowing catering sales.

The owners say they benefitted from RestaurantOwner.com's daily and weekly webinars around delivery and carryout, CARES Act info, cash-flow forecasting, Anne Gannon's financial wizardry, and marketing advice. "We learned a lot about ourselves and what other businesses were doing to survive."

Plans for 2021 include expanding the virtual kitchen concepts. "We are also looking at expanding our take-home catering (cold/frozen meals) and online and retail sales of sauces, dressings, and rubs, with nationwide shipping. Who knows…you might just see our delicious Honey Apple barbecue sauce, Gary's Sweet Rub, or our Colorful Corn and Black Bean Salsa on your local, grocery store shelf one day."