Adaption keeps restaurant open

By Adrienne Mason
agemason@gmail.com

In March 2020, The Jug Family Restaurant’s sales dropped 70% due to the COVID-19 pandemic closures. Today, The Jug is thriving. Why? Adaption.

When the pandemic hit, Ken and Chris Durocher quickly had to shift the focus of their restaurant. How do they keep their doors open and not have to close, like so many other restaurants were doing? Since the pandemic was creating shopping shortages on many household pantry items, a supplier suggested opening a pop-up grocery store. The Durocher’s came from other grocery, retail, and restaurant backgrounds before opening their family restaurant, and the transition of opening a grocery store was natural for them. The grocery store supplemented The Jug’s sales well enough that Ken & Chris decided to build more shelving and purchase refrigeration systems. Now the groceries will be a permanent fixture in The Jug Family Restaurant.

Ken takes pride in being able to offer items that are not usually available in small towns. They have now accumulated over 1,300 items and have digitized their inventory with a new Point of Sale system to make the shopping process more efficient. Customers can still safely dine in and out of the restaurant but also do some extra grocery shopping.

Ken said that “If you’re not ready to turn on a dime, you’re probably gone. You have to be able to operate in a different manner. I am actually a chef, I like to do the more high-end stuff, but that stuff doesn’t travel well. When you finish a steak, and you put it in a take out container, it keeps cooking. So I know that if someone orders a medium steak to go, I cook it to a medium-rare, and it will cook and finish well by the time the customer takes it home. You gotta adapt to make things more transportable. You gotta be able to adapt, and it’s a simple as that.”