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he owner/partner of JuJu, Dos Perros and Chapel Hill’s JuJube, Charlie Deal (pictured right) has strained his instinct for improvisation the past 18 months, like every other restaurant owner. He also faced an unexpected body-blow medical diagnosis in late 2018 – Parkinson’s disease. “[It] presents a set of new challenges and limits my effectiveness in the restaurants,” Charlie says. “So there have been some role changes, which have led me to spend less time at the restaurants during peak service because I simply can’t handle the stress and, quite frankly, I don’t want to be slow and in the way. Fortunately, there’s still plenty for me to do behind the scenes.” Following are edited excerpts of a conversation with Durham Magazine’s Dan Shannon, conducted over the past summer when things looked like they were getting much better, but then, maybe not so much better or maybe not quite so fast. WHERE TO BEGIN. HOW HAVE YOU GOTTEN THROUGH THIS?
We, and plenty of other restaurants and caterers, were [initially] given a lifeline thanks to Linden Thayer [of the nutrition research organization Food Insight Group] and her group Durham FEAST that paid us to provide breakfasts and lunches for kids who were no longer getting free meals at school during the shutdown. It allowed us to keep the lights on and keep some of our staff on the payroll. Now, obviously, things like that are not going to stick around for us, but other adjustments will. Basically we pivoted all year. ANY POSITIVE CHANGES AS A RESULT OF PIVOTING?
Our point-of-sale partner, Toast, has been great and has helped make online ordering a reality. Also, I think 30
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every [restaurateur] is coming out of this with a heightened awareness of sanitation. If being more careful prevents us from catching the cold or flu, all the better. Frankly, I hope people don’t throw their masks away when this is over and use them the way some other countries do and wear them when you’ve got a bug but still need to get out in public. I mean, we’ve gotten used to them now. YOUR TAKEAWAY ON THE TAKEOUT OPTION?
In simple terms, most of us who weren’t specifically geared toward takeout used to just do it over the phone because it didn’t amount to a big enough portion of our business to [do more] with it. But most, if not all, of us started doing a significant amount of takeout, and it’s so much easier to have it online. I’m also guessing that some customers prefer it as well. It will stick around.
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“I started [running] my own clandestine restaurant out of my apartment [while I was a student at the University of California, Berkeley],” Charlie recalls. “Years later, in fact, there was a Duke student doing the same thing, and I helped him source some ingredients.”
BUT DINING IN IS REALLY WHAT YOU DO.
Yes, most restaurants are geared toward a dine-in experience. I mean, let’s be honest here. The food being served at most of the restaurants does not benefit from being put in a box for about a half an hour before being eaten, quite possibly, from the same box. A $25 entree doesn’t look much like a $25 entree when you put it in a box. And I expect that most people, once they have the confidence to eat out, will go back to that. NOW ABOUT STAFFING ...
We’re scrambling like everyone else is. We’re certainly offering more money than we used to, but unless