TOWSON, Md. — Some of the casual dining chains that we've come to know and love are closing stores or disappearing altogether.
WATCH: How one local mom-and-pop restaurant is faring in this economic climate
So how are small, mom-and-pop restaurants staying afloat? We check in with one of our local eateries.
Ding
It's the sound of success at Chef Bobby D's restaurant in Towson.
“When I just hit it, it sent a text message to the customer saying, ‘Hey your food is ready.’
Award-winning chef Bobby Davis is known for his Caribbean fusion cuisine. Most notably, his rasta pasta, with jerk-seasoned meat and a creamy Cajun sauce over rigatoni.
“We top it off with cheese and then after, we just garnish it with parsley,” he says. “Most of the dishes get this either way.”
Davis opened his first restaurant in 2017 in Hampden and here in Towson four years ago. He runs the Towson store with his wife, Jackel, and his brother, Dane.
In the past year, though, rising food prices, labor costs and energy bills have shot up.
“Chicken tenders is a little pricey,” Davis says. “We try to use the best quality out there of chicken. It's not much. We get four of these for $130. It won’t last even a day. We use it for a lot of our dishes. Our wraps, our pasta, our blackened chicken.”
That same amount of chicken cost him just $40 a year ago.
It's costs like this that Davis and other restaurant owners are reluctant to hand down to their customers.
“At the end of the day, you've got staff to pay,” he says, “and then you have your family to feed.”
So, what can they do?
Davis had to reimagine his vision of a sit-down restaurant. While there's still table service and a courtyard dining area, there's also these, tablets that ping all day with orders.
“I have to change my whole business model,” he says. “You know, to think and mostly focus on takeout. To focus on getting the food out there instead of getting customers in. And I was able to grow the business.”
Just a couple of doors down, another restaurant closed recently after only a year in business. Davis thinks about a backup plan if he had to make that decision.
“Sometime you get discouraging,” he says, his Jamaican accent coming out. “Because you know, when you look and you have what coming out and you know, what's coming in, sometime it doesn't add up. Sometime, it does. So, you gotta hope for the time it do is more than the time it don't.”
Even in tough times, he still finds the joy in cooking. And serving others.
“I love it,” he says. “So, it's like, I wouldn't change it for the world.
According to the National Restaurant Association, almost half of Americans order takeout at least once a week and about three out of four restaurant orders are to go.
