BALTIMORE — Near record high temperatures make a lot of us want to stay inside. Restaurants are seeing the impact of that as they say sales have gone down as the temperature has gone up.
It's not just restaurants, but food trucks and businesses that deliver food are all feeling the heat, and it's not coming from the kitchen.
Some changed the way they do business to keep customers coming.
"This last two weeks to three weeks have really slowed down a lot of people really don’t want to come eat hot stuff right away.”
Dorian Owens, owner of ‘That Dude & His Food’, cooks the majority of his food on a smoker.
Everything from ribs, jerk-pulled chicken, and even mac and cheese.
“Usually I’m sold out in like a day," he says.
Lately, that hasn’t been the case. With temperatures reaching the hundreds this week, he says business is slower, forcing him to cook and sell less food.
He says he has even had to change his menu to add some cold dishes to keep his customers.
The heat isn’t just hurting sales.
Normally 'That Dude & His Food' partners with local bars and sells food outside, but he says he had to stop for now so his workers aren’t in the heat all day.
“I don’t want to put my workers, people who work with me, out in the heat like that; you know, we're sitting out there all day. Even though we are under a tent, we still got this going. This is putting out heat. The sun is putting out heat. It's just too much," says Owens.
Verde in Canton is also seeing fewer customers in the heat.
Evan Bosco, the general manager, says since the building is older, the A/C isn’t the best, and lately they haven’t been feeling much of it.
“So outside has taken a huge hit, as you may have noticed when you came out here, not a lot of people outside, no one wants to deal with the heat and the humidity that like Chesapeake stuffiness, is a little rough," says Evan Bosco.
He says fewer people have been coming out to eat inside as well.
“We got real scared last week. It was like a really big downturn for us, and we’re excited to see the numbers start growing again," says Evan.
Evan Bosco says other businesses in the area in these older buildings are in similar situations; he says restaurants have to get creative to keep it cool.
“Find the parts of the restaurant that are like very hot particularly places that are on upper floors or in like narrow hallways or away from the mass majority of A/C vents, and maybe quarantine those off," he says.
You can find 'That Dude & His Food' at La Chow, 210 S Central Ave.
VerdePizza is located in Canton.
