Customers don’t experience the scent of fresh brewed coffee and can’t flip through the pages of the newspaper as they wait for their food.

The once-busy dine-in area of the restaurant has been closed since March 17 when Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a state of public health disaster due to the threat of COVID-19.

It has forced the closures of establishments in Fort Dodge and across the state.

“It’s pretty darn quiet inside compared to what it used to be,” said Jerry Jordison, owner of Ja-Mar, which was established in Fort Dodge in 1967.

-Messenger file photo by Chad Thompson
Jim Bird, Fort Dodge business owner and president of Main Street Fort Dodge, presents infromation about downtown Fort Dodge during a market analysis presentation in February of 2019 at Olde Boston’s Restaurant and Pub.

Breakfast sales have sharply declined.

“Breakfast is 95 percent inside seating,” Jordison said. “So that has been totally lost. We might sell 10 to 15 breakfast orders at the window.”

He said he’s had to let go of good help.

“I carry 40 employees, I’m down to 13,” he said. “Every one of them kids that come in in the morning, I don’t need them anymore.”

But the drive-thru business has saved the restaurant.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Dan Riley, owner of Dan Riley Plumbing, poses with some tools of the trade. Riley said there have been some cases in recent times where wipes and paper towels have been flushed down toilets. He believes that has been happening more due to the toilet paper shortage. Items like wipes and paper towels should not be flushed as they can clog pipes, Riley said.

“Thank goodness to the public, they sure have been supporting us,” he said. “When it starts at 11 a.m. and ends around 8 p.m., it’s pretty nonstop.”

The steady flow of cars that come in off South 25 Street will keep the business afloat, but Jordison wishes things were different.

“With that drive-up, I will survive,” he said. “I will be able to pay my bills. I just feel sorry for my help. There’s just nothing I can do. I can’t keep them on and pay them like the government says you can. Our cashflow isn’t like that as a restaurant. So they do get their unemployment and hopefully we can open back up in a month or two.”

Long term, the supply of food and other materials is a worry.

“My meat supplier, I was shorted some chicken,” he said. “I just wonder how the food supply will stay. You know you can’t get bleach or hand sanitizer, and paper sacks, I have three suppliers. Paper sacks — could be hard to get those. The longer it goes (with more drive-thru orders).”

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Jerry Jordison, owner of Ja-Mar Drive In Restaurant, pours some gravy over a bowl of mashed potatoes. Leander Terrell, 19, a cook, works on the next order.

Jim Bird, an entrepreneur who owns four Fort Dodge restaurants, has faced a diverse set of challenges.

“It’s rough, no doubt about that,” said Bird who is an owner of Olde Boston’s Restaurant and Pub, Sports Page, Mineral City and Pancheros Mexican Grill. “We have tried to keep as many people employed as we can.”

The shut down of the bar and dine-in portions of Bird’s restaurants were sudden.

“We thought that morning, we would ramp down and go through some of the products before they shut us down,” Bird said. “But by 10 a.m. we were done. Noon we had to be closed. That’s a real shocker.”

Sports Page, 2707 N 15th St., and Olde Boston’s, 809 Central Ave., in particular, are heavily reliant on dine-in business.

“With those we went to pickup and some delivery and we have maybe recouped 20% of the business,” Bird said. “The hard part is to try and keep employees engaged so when things get back up and running we have a good staff.”

Bird has been a restaurant owner since 1981 when Olde Boston’s was known as Marvin Gardens. He and his business partner, Joe Cain, have been working together ever since. Sports Page opened in the early 1990s and Mineral City in 2000.

Mineral City, 2621 Fifth Ave. S., has been able to absorb the loss of dine-in customers better than some of Bird’s other restaurants.

“Mineral City we kind of got up and running because we had some some carside to go already,” Bird said. “And Boston’s downtown is different. It gets way quiet down there. Out at Mineral we already started to do curbside to go and downtown we can’t do that. We just aren’t set up for it. At Olde Boston’s, we are trying to hang on down there to do some pickup down there, some delivery down there especially at lunch. But it’s quiet.”

Bird said even with an increased focus on curbside and delivery services, it represents a small percentage of the business his restaurants were doing when they were fully open.

Pancheros favors a to-go order system.

“Pancheros is doing OK because that’s the pickup and go,” Bird said. “Our dine-in business there is only 30 percent already. That’s staying pretty strong for us.”

Bird is anticipating some help through the federal government, but he’s not sure what that will look like yet.

“They say there are some grants available, some loans,” he said. “That gives us some hope that even if business is slow, we can keep our employees engaged and employed.”

•

Local plumber Dan Riley has seen a slight uptick in his business amid the virus concerns.

“The drain cleaning has been busy,” he said. “Spring time and fall is busy anyways because trees are getting that taste of nice weather in the spring, or winter, trying to get as much water as they can.”

There is one particular trend he’s been seeing.

“We have been noticing lately we have had a lot of baby wipes being flushed,” he said. “People are flushing paper towels or baby wipes more than they should.”

Riley, a 1993 St. Edmond Catholic School graduate, thinks that’s been happening more as there have been toilet paper shortages.

But he said materials like wipes and paper towels should be placed in a separate trash bag.

“Toilet paper is designed for going down the toilet,” Riley said. “It breaks up easier. Baby wipes and paper towels don’t break up as easy. They can catch on the pipes that go out to to sewer or tree roots on sewer line going out.

“Most sewers do have roots in it. Some places have lift stations. There’s not many lift stations in Fort Dodge, but they can also mess up lift stations in people’s houses.”

Despite the notion that plumbers are dirty, Riley said he always emphasizes cleanliness.

And he and his employees have taken extra precautions when going into customers’ homes.

“I tell my guys if they have a mask it’s up to them if they want to wear it,” Riley said. “But my secretatry does ask (customers) if there’s been anyone sick in the house. And we haven’t run into anyone yet that’s too sick that made us leery about going in there.”

Riley, who has been in business since December of 2007, said he uses hand sanitizers and Lysol wipes and sprays before and after going into someone’s house.

Getting supplies is the main time when Riley would be around a higher number of people.

“The biggest thing is when we go to our warehouses to pick up supplies, we really concentrate on calling ahead of time to make sure our orders are ready,” Riley said. “So we don’t spend much time in the warehouse so we are around as few of people as possible.”

Riley said he will continue to be cautious.

“I recommend having Lysol right inside your door that you use to spray your shoes off when you come in,” he said. “Have Lysol wipes that you can get to. This coronavirus can stay up to surface from 6 hours to three days and keeping things clean will help you in the long run and minimize the contact with people. It’s still early in this.”

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