A year into this new way of doing things, and we’re still feeling our way around. A lot has changed, but I sense a glimmer of hope, so I thought I’d go back and review what we’ve done, what has worked, and what hasn’t.
Let’s face it, Big Springs is not a fine dining establishment. We’re a BBQ joint and smokehouse, and we have a lot of fun doing it. Last summer, we didn’t have indoor seating, we ran strictly a fast casual counter with outdoor seating, no full table service. In August, we transitioned to the limited indoor seating mandated by the Arkansas Department of Health: seated tables 6 feet apart. This put our indoor seating for the winter at about 25 people maximum at 5 tables. We turned our small dining room where social distancing wasn’t possible into a retail room with our dessert case and order counter. Rather than being seated with a menu, our customers look at a menu on the wall, order at the counter, and then grab a table. We wait on them like usual after that. We did get these cool chalk boards and chalk pens for the menus.
I’d like to update you that this is the ideal setup and that I love it so much, but I’m still pretty ambivalent about it. I think that if people are going to be buying a fifteen dollar dinner, that they don’t want to order at the counter. They want a menu they can hold in their hand, they want to discuss their choices at length, they don’t want to feel rushed. We’re working on that, but aren’t sure when we’ll get to increase our capacity, so we don’t know when we’ll change. Add to that, food prices are still a little volatile and availability is pretty sketch, and it’s hard to invest in a big print job right now. The chalkboard menu is easily changed. I still have about 50 paper menus from last fall that we had to change and so are useless now, bound for the recycling bin.
Anyway, that’s our spring time update for today. We’re surviving by constantly changing and adjusting. Our prices, our format, our staff, and our outlook are fluid, and that’s the way it has to be right now. I’m cool with it.