What can be said other than, ”It’s been completely out of our control, and there was no way for us to be prepared for this pandemic. The hospitals weren’t even ready.”
Those words belong to Chad Hill. He’s one of the owners of the Wheeling Brewing Company in Centre Market. Chad Hill is scared his dream soon will come crashing to an end. All he, his wife, Angie, and Jimmy Schulte and Dave Cornett wanted to do was to add an asset to the atmosphere in the most popular commercial area in the city of Wheeling.
That was in 2014. Today is 2020, a year ruined by COVID-19.
“This situation has been especially difficult for all of the people in the restaurant business, and I mean everyone,” Hill said. “At the same time, other businesses were deemed essential like most of the big-box stores. But restaurants represent the second highest employer in the country, and it’s second only to government across the board, and those government employees still got paid while so many in restaurants didn’t.”
The Third Spike
Most of the country was shut down by state governments during the first spread of COVID-19 in March, and eateries were limited to take-out and curbside services only. The Wheeling Brewing Company was permitted to sell growlers of its craft beers, too, but now that the nation is expressing its most serious spike of 2020, the future is unclear.
As of Wednesday, the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department has recorded 1,192 positive COVID-19 cases and 16 associated deaths.
“It is concerning, and it doesn’t seem as if we have a way around it right now,” Hill said. “When we were limited to curbside service, our business was decent enough to sustain us, but it was far less revenue than what we generated when we were open to the public. The Paycheck Protection Program loan was a positive, too, and that is what kept us open through the summer.
“The people who came to us for take-out orders are very loyal customers, and we can’t think those folks enough,” he said. “But our business was designed to have a great atmosphere and a really unique experience while inside the pub, and that was taken away in the spring, and it hurt us very badly.”
And when dine-in was permitted once again in West Virginia in May, hopes were high.
“But since we were allowed to open our doors again, we have seen only about 5-to-8 percent increase in revenue because of how this pandemic has changed things for all businesses, but especially restaurants,” Hill explained. “We were hoping for more, but right now I don’t believe anyone knows what to expect.
“We created a very safe environment inside the pub with all of the guidelines in place. In fact, we even exceeded what was recommended because I do know how people are feeling about this virus right now,” he continued. “But the increase hasn’t been much, and that’s disappointed us because we really thought out everything very carefully.”
One Unique Menu
Since the Wheeling Brewing Company opened six years ago, its menu has evolved with each of the chefs that have been in charge of the kitchen. Chef Audrey Moore has taken over since the departure of Chef Ryan Butler, and Hill and the other owners have been impressed with her creations.
“We spent about a month developing the new menu, and Audrey did a wonderful job on it,” he said. “She was our sous chef prior to Ryan leaving, but she is trained, and we were confident that she would do a great job, and that’s exactly what she did.
“Her flavors are thought through, and they balance every time,” he said. “She has taken the menu by the reins, and she’s taken it to a new level because she did an absolutely fabulous job on it. The menu that we kept was reworked, too, and Audrey has added some wonderful dishes that people have really enjoyed.”
Scotch eggs, flatbread pizzas, burrito bowls with alligator or duck, smoked sliders, gator and blackened shrimp tacos, and a reworked kimchi dish are a few of the menu’s features now.
“You don’t find most of those items around here, and that’s because we wanted to keep our uniqueness that we have offered since our first day of business,” Hill said. “We have also added some dishes that we know are very popular in this area, like the burgers, the nachos, and the tacos.
“So far, people seem to really like the menu since it has gone through some changes,” he said. “I think, personally, that’s it’s the best menu that we have offered since we opened, and that’s because Audrey has done such an awesome job.”
Dreams Can End?
Hill and his wife along with Schulte and Cornett had one goal when the Wheeling Brewing Company and was to help make Wheeling a more enticing place for others to open their own small businesses. They were confident a gastropub would prosper, and it did just that for several years.
Enter the unprecedent pandemic.
“Right now, we are surviving week-by-week at the pub,” Hill admitted. “We’ve got our fingers crossed that the promotions that we have done on social media attract more people to come in, and we’re doing that because right now, we don’t have the money for advertising other ways.
“Because of the cuts that have been made to my full-time job, and the decreases the other owners have experienced at their jobs, too, it’s impossible for us to keep putting our own money into the pub right now to keep the place open,” he said. “That’s pretty much where we are right now, and it’s difficult for us because of what the Wheeling Brewing Company has come to mean to the people of Wheeling.”
The battle for survival, though, involves many more than just the four owners.
“We have been penny pinching, to be honest, because none of us wants to have to tell our employees that we can’t stay open. Our employees stick their necks out for us, and they work very, very hard,” Hill said. “We haven’t been brewing our beers as much as we could, and that’s just one of several cuts that we have implemented right now.
“Before the pandemic, we felt we were one of the staples in Centre Market, and we grew a very loyal customer base,” he said. “The last thing I want to see is that we have to close it.”
