Restaurants, coffee shops expand services with delivery, curbside pickup

Curbside pickup and delivery options are helping customers — and local restaurants — through the coronavirus chaos.

Vine and Olive Riverstone Eatery and Wine Bar, which serves dishes such as marinated beet salads and smoked salmon crostini, began offering temporary curbside pickup on Saturday after experiencing a 50 percent loss in sales last week, according to owner Naomi Boutz.

“I’m just trying to make it easy for people to support us and be very respectful to how everyone feels is best to move forward with this,” Boutz said Monday. “We wanted to make it convenient and make people feel safe to take food to go.”

Customers can call the store at 208-758-7770, request an order for curbside service and get their orders to go without having to step foot in the restaurant. No extra fees will be added. This service is being offered “to be proactive and to try to get ahead of this,” Boutz said.

This is one idea she and her chef came up with to offset the loss of business restaurants are experiencing as many people are choosing not to dine in. She said they’ve also brainstormed preparing ready-to-cook meals for up to six people “to move product and provide something less expensive than ordering food to go” and offering disposable growlers for beer customers.

“I spend a lot of time encouraging my team to be extremely positive. We’re all in uncharted territory,” Boutz said. “The best thing we can do is be encouraging and respectful of the situation. This is a very scary pandemic we’re in. But I’ve promised them Vine and Olive is not shutting down. We will come through this. That doesn’t mean it’s not going to be painful, but we will get through this.”

To the north, Local Deli in Hayden and Rathdrum is now offering free curbside pickup and expanding delivery services.

“It’s another way for people to get our food without getting out of the car,” said owner Shelly Carhart. “People are scared to go out, and I understand that, but they also don’t want to not go out because there’s still people out and about and going to work.”

The $10 delivery minimum for the Hayden location is being applied to the Rathdrum store, which normally requires a $25 minimum.

“We’re trying to do what we can to help people out until this all blows over,” Carhart said.

Local Deli, which serves sandwiches, salads and more, also experienced a hit in business in response to the coronavirus.

“Friday wasn’t as bad, but Saturday was pretty drastic,” she said. “We did about half of what our average Saturday is. It was drastic for both stores.”

Customers can call the Hayden location at 208-762-4676 or Rathdrum at 208-712-3494 to request curbside service or delivery. If store shelves are empty of bread, Local Deli offers big Texas grange style (TGS) bread loaves and hoagie rolls for $2.50 and 99 cents each, respectively.

“We’re just trying to do our part in helping the community get through this,” Carhart said. “From a business standpoint, we want everybody to stay healthy but still spend locally if you can.”

Both stores have upped their vigorous cleaning and sanitation regimens to keep guests and employees safe.

Boutz said this whole thing is surreal, especially when the announcement came for Washington bars and restaurants to close.

“Vine and Olive has only been open a little more than two years, and boy, the restaurant was profitable its first year,” she said. “Now I’m putting a business plan together to survive an international pandemic to not close my doors. It’s crazy. It’s the most surreal experience from where we were three months ago.”

But these locals aren’t going down without a fight.

“We are defiant. We’re going to come through this. We’re going to not just survive; we are going to thrive,” Boutz said. “I’m in the fight for my life right now. A success story is going to come out of this, but we’re just not sure how it’s going to be written yet.”

RJ Rueber, owner of Calypsos Coffee at 116 Lakeside Ave., is offering delivery of coffee and tea, including free delivery in Coeur d’Alene.

“There’s a lot of fear and panic going on around town, and that’s no good, that’s no fun,” he said in a video. “If you’re scared about the coronavirus, we will deliver you coffee, and deliver you tea, right to your door.”

He said business has been reduced as fears of the virus escalate.

“Serving people is my livelihood, the reason I wake up in the mornings,” Rueber wrote. “Getting to chat with our regulars, getting to make new friends and talk to new people every day is what I thrive off of. COVID-19 is taking this away from me, my family, and my staff. We will be okay. Coronavirus has taken a couple thousand lives, and that’s much worse than a couple weeks of hanging out at home.”

He said Calypsos is sanitizing well and disinfecting tables several times a day, and making sure all dishes are sterilized, too. It encourages customers to wash their hands and if they’re not feeling well, to stay home.

“We’re all doing what we can do make Calypsos germ free,” Rueber wrote.

He said callers ordering coffee or tea by calling 665-0591 don’t even have to come out of their house.

“Don’t let this coronavirus fear stop you from coming out, having fun and living your life,” he said. “That’s just not going to be good for anybody.”