Ainsley:
Well, it is back to business for one New York family of restaurant owners. Their three tourist based upstate eateries are officially reopened for the high season. And they say that customers are already coming back. Joining us now, Buddy Foy Jr, the owner of Chateau On The Lake. Buddy Foy Sr, the owner of Cate’s Italian Garden and Jesse Foy, the owner of Diamond Point Grill. This is in the Lake George area. Hey guys?`
Jesse Foy:
Hey.
Buddy Foy Jr:
Hi Ainsley, how are you? Good morning?
Ainsley:
Hi, I’m doing well.
Buddy Foy Sr:
Good morning guys.
Ainsley:
Thank you so much. I’ve been seeing your commercials on the food network, because you guys have just gotten this reality show called Summer Rush. But your Summer Rush has been affected by Covid, and you make most of your money according to the promos from Memorial day to Labor day. But you’re reopening, right?
Buddy Foy Jr:
We just reopened about two weeks ago, and we’re phasing in the opening phases for capacity. It’s been challenging, but there is demand now. The seats are another conversation, but there’s a lot of demand from the customers. And they’re ready to rock and roll and go out, and dine out, and have someone make their drinks.
Ainsley:
Buddy Sr, you’re the dad of these two young men, and started your restaurant named after your wife. And how is this affecting your restaurant, and have you ever seen anything like this in your experience?
Buddy Foy Sr:
Well, I’ve been in the industry over 55 years. And for me it’s always been about having fun with my customers and literally putting out good food. I’ve always enjoyed what I do. So this year is a little bit different with the guidelines that we have, and the protocol we have to follow. We are trying to guide our customers as well to guide ourselves, so everybody has a great experience.
Ainsley:
Jesse, how about you? What’s your biggest challenge, or has been throughout these last few months?
Jesse Foy:
You know, my biggest challenge right now with my employees, 90% of my employees were eager to come back. You got to understand 10% were eager to come back, due to the coronavirus and collect unemployment. And it’s really important to get that 10% back to work because we need all hands on deck right now.
Ainsley:
Yeah. And Buddy Jr, with your restaurant, how are y’all doing it? Are you putting restaurants? We’re seeing some pictures and I’m not sure which restaurant that is, of the white tent and all the tables outside.
Buddy Foy Jr:
Yeah. That’s Jesse’s restaurant.
Ainsley:
Okay. So are you doing similar things too?
Buddy Foy Jr:
Yeah, we maximize our outdoor space. We’re very fortunate. We’re in a lot better position than a lot of restaurants are right now in America. A, because we’re in the Adirondacks on Lake George. So that gives us the outdoor space that we have up here. Most of us don’t have to deal with sidewalks. We have the property to do the business. So we’re very fortunate there. We’re just managing the vendor supply chain, it’s very challenging. But everyone’s working hard, and everyone’s playing their role. They’re doing whatever it takes to get back in business, and support restaurants, and for us to get out there and service the customers. So it’s challenging, but at the industry sticking together, it’s a tight end industry, and we’re going to get this thing back on track. Demand is there, that’s the bottom line. Customer demand is there, which praise God, it’s there.
Ainsley:
It’s starting to rise up in other states down in the south. I’m from South Carolina and they’re starting to really get a little nervous. My parents were, I wanted to see them and they’re saying, no, no, no, no, no, because it’s just not safe down here right now. And I have to quarantine. And my point in this is, in New York for New Yorkers, we were feeling that a few months ago. So now what’s your experience with that? Are your customers? I think we’re all itching to go back to restaurants and eat outside.
Buddy Foy Jr:
Yeah. I mean, for the most part, we do get some phone calls with customers that are nervous, and we do our best. We put them in a very isolated area, but we do also recommend them to stay home and we’ll bring the food to their doorstep, so that we will manage it. A lot of the customers are respecting the guidelines, and we’re speaking them way out. And we’re very fortunate in that regard that we don’t have to police customers behaviors, which is a big deal. So, there are customers that we still have not seen in our restaurants, that are vulnerable.
And we definitely want to keep them home and support them however we can with deliveries. My father’s doing a ton. He’s probably doing more deliveries than all of us.
Jesse Foy:
Yeah.
Ainsley:
Really?
Buddy Foy Sr:
Well, we’re fortunate enough that we had a good delivery business to begin with.
Buddy Foy Jr:
Yeah.
Buddy Foy Sr:
And now we have curbside service. Our little town has let us take the front of the sidewalk. So I got probably four or five cars can pull up one time. They line up, we cooked their food, we bring them out, and we put them in the car and they drive away, next car pulls up.
Ainsley:
That’s great.
Buddy Foy Sr:
So we’ve been very fortunate since the beginning with that.
Ainsley:
Good.
Buddy Foy Sr:
And that’s it with that.
Ainsley:
Okay. Well, you’re very fortunate also to have your two sons there, all three of you. I wish you the best with your restaurants. It’s wonderful that y’all are serving that beautiful community. If y’all have never been to Lake George, anyone out there, you’ve got to go. It’s beautiful, and the weather’s a lot nicer than it is in New York city during the summer, because it’s so hot here. I wish you the best. Thanks guys for coming on. We’ll all be watching your show.
Buddy Foy Sr:
Thank you. God bless you.
Ainsley:
God bless you too.