Proprietors weigh payoffs of year-round business
As the days creep further into the winter, locals are finding themselves scrounging around for more places to dine along Coastal Highway and the shore.
Coastal Point • JESSE PRYOR
Dick Heidenberger, one of four owner's of Bethany Blues in Bethany Beach holds up a menu at the bar. The restaurant is open seven days a week, with restricted hours, for the winter.Popular restaurants in the area, such as Warren’s Station, Fenwick Crab House and Bethany Beach’s Blue Crab closed their doors as the last of the tourists left town. Others, such as The Chalkboard Tavern and Grille and North Bethany’s Bluecoast Seafood Grill are closed certain days of the week.
With the heart of the winter season upon the area, many restaurant managers and owners are faced with the predicament of how to maintain their businesses until warmer weather — and the visitors it brings — arrive again on the shore.
“We were open all week last year for the first time,” said Jim Weisgerber, one of four owners of Bethany Blues. The barbeque-centered restaurant has seen a sharp increase in popularity since its opening in the summer of 2003.
The restaurant business has become a huge part of Weisgerber’s life. He also shares ownership with his partners of local spots like Dickey’s Frozen Custard, which has two locations in Bethany, and the popular Dewey Beach bar The Starboard — all of which are temporarily closed for the season.
Though it runs on restricted hours, Bethany Blues is one of the only restaurants in town that still unlocks their doors for customers seven days a week.
Why is it that so many restaurants are closed in the winter, for days, if not months? One of the concerns on every owner’s mind is the income. When management chooses to stay open in the winter seasons, they can go days without seeing profit, due to lack of customers.
“What it comes down to is we’re not breaking any records being open seven days a week,” said Kevin Rogers, another of Bethany Blues’ four owners.
“It’s definitely a concern,” said Weisgerber, “but we don’t like to look at it that way. We want to provide customers with a great experience. People tell us they really appreciate us being open year-round. We want to let people come as they want.”
Weisgerber said that he and his partners had had a number of dilemmas when closing on certain days of the week in past winters.
“When we were open only on certain days, it was hard for customers to keep track,” he said. Rather than customers stopping in on nights that the restaurant was open, Weisgerber said more people stopped coming in, altogether. “They aren’t always dialed in to the same thing we are. People don’t want to have to worry about what nights a place is open.”
He added that even the management and owners got tied up in the schedule, sometimes getting confused on which days the restaurant was open for business.
Since the Cottage Cafe came to Bethany Beach nearly 14 years ago, owners Brent Poffenburger and Tom Neville have come to appreciate the dedication that goes into running their popular business.
The restaurant, which has not seen any substantial amount of closed time since they opened, temporarily closed for two weeks at the end of January. One of those weeks serves as vacation time for the employees and the other for maintenance, such as cleaning, painting and general upkeep.
“I’ve always believed in consistency,” said Poffenberger. “Service and food are important, but I try to be consistent with hours, too.”
Management at Bethany Blues is using the slower business to their renovating advantage, as well. “We’re concentrating on curbside carryout,” said Weisgerber. “Nearly 10 percent of our profit comes from to-go orders, and, hopefully, by this summer, we’ll have a convenient system for that.”
Customer satisfaction is another one of the priorities the managers are after when they decide to keep their doors open year-round and consider ways to keep the customers coming in.
“If we put in our time now,” said Rogers, “it draws people in. We want to keep people talking about our restaurant.” Indeed, Bethany Blues brings to the table something that people couldn’t readily experience in the area prior to their opening. “Barbecue is something that a lot of people really enjoy and it’s hard to find in some of the areas,” said Weisgerber. “We bring an easy, casual dining that people enjoy.”
Bethany Blues also runs “Local’s Night,” including discounted specials, to offer something extra for local residents during the winter.
At the Cottage, Poffenberger has developed his own theory. “In the off season, we try to take care of the locals. If we do that, they’ll take care of us. If we can still appeal to the people now, they’ll help us in the summertime by recommending us to the tourists. If someone wants to find a good place to go for a meal or a drink, we rely on our customers to give them our name.
Poffenberger said that, since the unusual two-week hiatus, Cottage Cafe regulars have been anxiously waiting for the doors to open again, which they were set to do Feb. 1. Once open again, the restaurant will return to its seven-day-a-week schedule.
But maintaining a year-round restaurant in a seasonal location is not always as easy as pleasing customers. Restaurant owners and managers are faced with additional responsibilities and concerns from those of retail businesses. Keeping up with food inventory can be a frustrating asset.
Coastal Point • JESSE PRYOR Restaurants like Warren's Station in Fenwick Isalnd close up for the season and wait for the warmer-weather crowds to re-appear.“We found that we were better off staying open,” said Weisgerber. “When we were closed two nights a week, there was a lot more food that could go to waste. For example, if you had lettuce left over, you knew that it wasn’t going to last three days. If we’re open all week, it allows us to move product every day.”
“If you’re going to stay open,” added Poffenberger, “You still have rent and electrical bills and things like that to worry about.”
Another matter restaurant owners consider is their employees. In addition to long-anticipated weather, the summer months bring in a plethora of people looking for three-, four- and five-month jobs.
“It’s great to have people coming back to help us out each summer,” Weisgerber said. “But at the same time, [year-round employment] lets us work with our core group of people. If someone’s working for us, living in the area, what would they do if we decided to close for a few months? It’s not fair to them.”
“Even when we close for a few days in a week,” added Rogers, “we run the risk of losing quite a few people. We are trying to keep the staff we have and make our business a special place to work. It gets time consuming and financially consuming when you have to train new people at new positions.”
And there’s a similar mindset at the Cottage. “We try to build up our year-round clientele,” said Poffenberger. “We try to maintain our staff to build confidence in our [restaurant].”
For more information about Bethany Blues, visit their Web site at www.bethanyblues.com or call at (302) 537-1500. For The Cottage Café, call (302) 539-8710.