HIGH POINT, N.C. — The owner of PepperMill Café knows all too well the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We're doing about 50% (of our typical business), some days are better than others,” PepperMill Café Owner Esther Asprogiannis said.
The restaurant had to shut down for several weeks but is now back open for dine-in seating at 50% capacity. Customers can also order takeout if they don’t want to come inside.
“Some people don’t care. They come in and eat, they sit down, and are not worried about what’s around them,” Asprogiannis said.
While business is slowly picking back up, the restaurant is barely making a profit and it is still getting relief funds from the federal government in the form of payroll protection. Without that money, the longtime café would be losing even more.
“We would be dipping into other funds and things to be able to do that. It would be a great loss,” Asprogiannis said.
The other setback Asprogiannis did not predict was employees, laid off in March, choosing not to come back to work. About a dozen of her 25 employees decided not to return to work, some for safety reasons, while some are making more money on unemployment.
“Am I surprised by the people that want to lay out and stay out, and I’m calling it lay out because that’s what I think it is when you’re getting paid to stay at home...yes, some of them yes,” Asprogiannis said.
The limited number of trained employees forced Asprogiannis to reduce the hours of operation. The café is now only open for breakfast and lunch.
“We have no nighttime staff whatsoever right now, and if we were to open, we would have to start from scratch,” said Asprogiannis.
The biggest concern right now is the continued rise in COVID-19 cases across the state. Some states across the country have delayed plans to move to the next phase or even rolled back reopening plans.
“If he (Gov. Cooper) announces that we go backward instead of forward I’ll be the first one out there, and you’re going to hear some words fly out of my mouth that have never flown out of my mouth,” Asprogiannis said.
Like many businesses, the PepperMill Café is reliant on customers, and right now not enough are coming and there’s not a lot of space if that many more wanted to. The next five months will be critical when it comes to the restaurant’s future. Asprogiannis has no plans to close the place like other restaurants across the Triad, but the business will have to improve for the PepperMill Café to stay open for its 34th year.