With an Emphasis on Teamwork and Cross-Training the Breakfast Table Cafe Survives Pandemic Crises

Cadee and Drew Galloway learned some valuable lessons from their Covid-19 ordeal -- and are grateful that RestaurantOwner.com was there to help guide them through it.

When the pandemic first exploded on the scene, Cadee reports, her restaurant went on lockdown for a month. "We had just come out of a long winter season and we were gearing up for an extremely busy spring break season."

The Breakfast Table is located on the beautiful Emerald Coast of Florida, a seasonal area whose busiest months are mid-March to October. Closing for the month of April "definitely hurt our business," she recalls, "not to mention that visitors were not even allowed in the state of Florida until around the first second week of May 2020, so we missed a valuable month."

The Galloways were forced to cut the hours of their employees. As soon as they were able to re-open they put everyone back to work immediately in order to retain them for the season. "Since there had to be social distancing, and we could only have 25% seating inside the café, we added tables and chairs to the outside deck area and converted the two front parking spots into an extended dining area," Cadee explains. "Then we delegated two more parking spots for curbside pickup."

'Then Everything Changed'

At first, Cadee recounts, she and her husband were able to hold onto their employees. "Then everything changed once I found out that I had become infected with the COVID-19 virus the first week of July 2020." Then things took a turn for the worse. "I was unable to go to the Cafe for the month of July." In addition, all but one of the front-of-the-house staffers became infected, as well.

"The busiest month all year and I had only one person to work the front," Cadee says. "She was the hostess, server, expeditor, busser, and cashier. She became burned out after a month and quit, so I had to recruit some family friends and work the front, sometimes by myself with only one cook and a dishwasher."

The trio came together as a team and handled all of the positions. The cook helped serve the food. The dishwasher seated guests, collected the drink orders and bused the tables. Cadee would get the orders and cash people out. "Then I would split the tips three ways to keep everyone motivated. They made their hourly plus cash each day to take with them at the end of the shift."

What Cadee calls her and her husband's best decision was to give their employees a raise, pool tips and offer bonus incentives. "I received some PPP money, so I was able to be generous to the employees that stayed working." Keeping staffers in place was, of course, critical. "The employees that stayed and were loyal to the business were generously compensated, and so they wanted to work harder."

'Extremely Helpful'

To no one's surprise, the situation "definitely improved" once the restaurant was able to resume full capacity. "At that point, we were able to make our projected sales and maintain the business we needed to survive."

Assistance from RestaurantOwner.com helped the couple "accomplish what was needed for that time," Cadee relates. "The articles and the webinars about the PPP money and how to spend it so that it would be a forgiven loan were extremely helpful."

The Galloways have come through the crisis with a healthy respect for the need for restaurant owners to have hands-on knowledge of every aspect of operations "so that when they are down employees, they can fill in where needed and get it done." Cross-training the staffers was "a big help" during the manpower shortage, "especially when each position is vital (and) there are not enough employees to work."

Another lesson was the importance of thorough vetting of potential new hires even before they come in for their interview. "I will also let the new hires know what is expected of them and exactly what their job responsibilities are," Cadee explains. "I will make sure they are crossed-trained for each position so that when someone calls out or does not show up, business can still carry on as usual and not be chaotic."