Reflections on 2020: a small business owners view
This is a personal post dedicated to you - our customers, our neighbors, our friends who have played the most important role in our lives this year. We wanted to share our story of the year no one will ever forget, 2020.
The day we signed, blissfully ignorant of the journey ahead…
We bought The Castello Plan on April 15th 2019, our first venture owning a business and fulfilling a lifelong dream of running a bar. We entered 2020 with excitement, a vision, a plan and the knowledge we needed to make this year a huge success. What could go wrong?! (record scratch)
Fate had a different plan. On March 16th 2020 NYC restaurants closed and all that planning went out the window. Overnight, we had to let most of our staff go. We went down to our chef plus Taj the owner, who took on all duties from barista to bartender (one of the benefits of the pandemic he learned some mean cocktails!), server, souz chef, handyman, dishwasher and more all at once. It was bleak, we went to near zero sales for a few weeks. He worked 17 hour days, more sometimes trying to come up with ideas to help The Castello Plan survive. Tina, his wife, was working a full time job and that same week, schools also closed - so add in full time homeschooling and becoming full time carers of our 6 and 9 year old kids. We were overwhelmed, exhausted, emotional and uncertainty looms every day.
We became a to-go market overnight!
BLM protest in Park Slope with Ruby (6) & Rayaan (9)
Holiday gift baskets… cos why not!
We had to do all we could to stay open and hire back our team: so we pivoted and pivoted. Something new everyday. We opened as a to-go model: food, booze, craft cocktails in a bag, groceries (yeast!), household goods (toilet paper anyone?!) picnic kits, ice cream, cheese/charcuterie by the oz, coffee by the oz, boozy ice pops, gift cards, whatever we could to stay afloat. We had our one year anniversary on April 15th 2020 - as a to-go only business and Taj toasting with his chef and a few regulars. We worked our skeleton staff to the bone preparing deliveries for healthcare workers to bring in some income while giving back to the local community. We gradually fought back opening up more days and hours each week and adding a job back every time we could offer one.
Our customers came and supported us, taking out to-go items and buying online. We marched (masked) at local BLM protests to share our support and so our children understood the importance of equality in the world. Taj turned 40 in June, no big party for this bar owner as outdoor dining reopened the next day. We reminded ourselves how to serve a to-stay customer but this time with covid controls! We invested in the future upgrading the outdoor dining area so we could serve customers within to new regulations, with Taj and team manually doing most the work themselves (life dreams of owning a circular saw, fulfilled!). We installed heaters. Our customers liked what they saw and filled our outdoor tables to enjoy some normality of dining at a restaurant! Confidence returned, we can beat this. We returned to full staffing, a major milestone! Indoor dining re-opened at 25% and closed within weeks, we entered the orange zone, re-opened for a few weeks, closed again as cases spiked. We are exhausted and confused, so many up’s and downs with barely any indoor dining permitted in 2020. Biden won the election and we sold out of Prosecco! Cold and wet days start to reduce our number of outdoor diners. We create holiday gift baskets to try to supplement lost income from the lack of indoor dining.
Now we reach the end of 2020 and it threw a lot at us - but we learnt so much. We listened. We grew. We changed. And we are resilient. The best part... you supported us through it. You showed up, you helped, you shopped, you tipped generously - and most importantly, you gave us your kind words and encouragement when we needed it the absolute most. You kept us fighting when we had nothing more to give.
No switch will be flipped tonight to make everything better in 2021... January and February will be extremely difficult, especially for restaurants. But we will keep fighting, keep working, keep pivoting because we believe in each other, we believe in what we do, we believe in our staff and just as you believed in us... we believe in you and this neighbourhood. Wishing all of our friends, our neighbors, our customers, our staff a safe new year’s and we want to say, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Despite the situation we hope you'll join us in entering 2021 stronger, brighter, focused... and with optimism and hope.
Love and light from Tina and Taj, The Castello Plan owners
Follow us @thecastelloplan
Bringing in New Years 2020… no party at Castello this year but we are grateful and happy to still be open despite all that was thrown at us this year!