Updated December 29, 2021
Update on service during this time.
We're covering all the bases!
We have indoor dining, heated outdoor tents and greenhouses, and take-out/delivery available during this time.
Our staff is being screened for symptoms at the start of each shift, we're supplying the crew with KN95/N95 masks for both their own and our diner's protection, and we're testing crew members who may have come in contact with someone who's contagious.
If you have any questions, please give us a call at 610-615-5189.
Lots of folks are feeling differently about where we are and some have said that we're being too cautious and even ridiculous. Some say: you wouldn't behave like this for the flu...
Well, we're not so sure that's true. As a public eatery, we are under constant scrutiny from the health department as to the condition and sanitization of our physical plant, how we handle, prepare and package food, and for our employee's attention to hand washing and personal health and hygiene. We take the health and safety of everyone we serve and our team seriously. It wouldn't matter the reason, we will take the precautions needed to serve cleanly and safely at all times. We will also never encourage any of our crew to work while they might be contagious with any illness. We'd rather they rest and recuperate.
As we exit the Christmas holiday weekend, we've had a lot of cases of folks fighting the virus, long lines at testing locations, and difficulty finding home test kits.
Some of our staff have had bumpy runs fighting the virus and we're hearing about many others too.
For the most part, folks who are vaccinated and those who are healthy fair ok although some have a period of feeling pretty awful.
Unfortunately, we have some folks who are struggling with other health issues in our circles for whom, even vaccinated, the virus has put them in dangerous spots.
We hope that you'll understand, no matter your perspective, that we're trying to operate with the best safeguards and standard operating procedures while also providing a wide range of dining options for everyone in our communities no matter their situations and perceptions of the situation we all find ourselves living with and trying to figure out.
With hopes and wishes for a better new year,
The Garage crew.
As the restrictions to close all indoor dining expire today and in the spirit of the transparency that we've had throughout these times, we wanted to share with our local communities an update on the Garage's approach, thinking, and plans for the immediate future.
Will you help us get this word out please with a share, a comment, and a like to break through the social media algorithms?
Some of our Garage family are in the high-risk group and considering the number of staff it takes to operate the Garage and then indoor diner numbers (even at 50%) on top, we're just being extra cautious this winter. We hope that you all will understand. We know that there's a wide variety of perspectives and views on the current situation.
For the time being, we are going to continue to offer outdoor dining in the personal private greenhouses and enclosures as well as no-contact curbside pickup and delivery using our wait staff and Cuisine To Go. To place an order, call the restaurant at 610-615-5189. We believe that both of these options are the safest possible approach for everyone.
We do have plans to continue to improve heating in our outdoor private enclosures as well as adding four more larger greenhouses to the current set of 15 enclosures.
We have been working on a plan for indoor dining at 50%. This involves changes in our HVAC system to vent more used air and bring in more fresh make-up air as well as the installation of iWave plasma air cleaners in our four HVAC zones and ice machine. Our approach to indoors also focuses on creating separated indoor air spaces for dining groups vs a single large shared dining room area.
Once we have more confidence that the volatility in policies and restrictions will abate as well as get a look at the post-holiday cases and mortalities, we will evaluate taking the step to offer this unique indoor dining experience as a transition on the way back to typical indoor dining service. Stay tuned!
As a reminder, all orders for curbside take-out and delivery placed before 4 PM Wednesday - Sunday get a 10% discount.
We take a limited number of reservations for our private outdoor dining spaces. Call the restaurant at 610-615-5189 as early as possible if you want to make a reservation.
We are open for lunch and dinner Wednesday - Friday and brunch and dinner Saturday and Sunday.
A huge thank you to our local communities for the support, love, and for choosing the Garage as part of your support for our local restaurant community. Your patronage makes our crew feel loved and respected and you've kept them all working, and earning, and paying their bills throughout this entire time.
Sometimes one has to look for a silver lining...
Sometimes one must create a silver lining...
Make dining with your bubble-mates in our individual outdoor greenhouses a stop on your holiday or winter to-do list!
Or give us a call for no-contact curb-side take-out or delivery: 610-615-5189.
There's a lot of not so fun things about living through a pandemic and sometimes adversity and ingenuity is also the mother of invention!
As the Garage crew continues to pivot and experiment with new things, we think we may have created something you'll like!
During the spring and summer when we sallied forth to explore the distant shores of the adjoining outdoor spaces and figure out how to make lemons out of lemon aid, we discovered and colonized new territory!
Just across the service road from our patio was what we had dismissed as a pretty but rather unimportant strip of grass and trees. Little did we know that when we landed on these shores, that this new territory would turn out to be a wonderful picnic grove with shade trees suitable for swings for small kids and a fun casual al-fresco dining experience!
But then.... Enter old man winter...
So we're still outside but now it's coooooold and we also want to provide the safest possible dining scenario. We believe that separate spaces that allow for heaters and good airflow make the most sense during these times. We also wanted a scenario that allowed for airing out and disinfecting between dining parties. Such an approach means each party would have as safe an experience as possible and one that also allows time and contact with servers to be as efficient and limited as possible.
As the weather turned, we prototyped this idea with individual heated canopy enclosures. Folks seemed to like these! We've continued with them on our sidewalk which is a relatively protected space. However, the winter weather hit hard early and was tough on the canopy enclosures on our patio and in the picnic grove. It was time to think up an upgraded strategy...
Enter the greenhouses.
Basic hobby greenhouses (which are quite a project to assemble by the way, but I digress) seemed like an excellent "hard sided" approach to solve for the inclement weather. We tested one larger one in our picnic grove in the fall and then added three more and then more on our patio too! For the picnic grove, we raised the greenhouses up on platforms and built some basic "gang plank" style walks to keep the mud and snow away and facilitate access during messy weather.
What we didn't expect was how wonderful the outcome would be!
The combination of lighting up the pine trees in the picnic grove and the new greenhouses really turned out to be like some sort of alpine village or ski resort experience. We think that they are just stunningly cute at night!
We'd like know what you think? To be frank, we think this would be cool even if there wasn't a pandemic on.
Maybe we can offer your "bubble" a unique and fun dining experience while we all navigate through the winter together. At least we hope this small distraction provides a little sense of "dining out" normalcy for you and yours!
Covid-19 Updates
UpdateWednesday, October 28
As our friends at Ron's Original Bar & Grille continue the hard work of reopening, let's all help them with this week's #GarageGivesBack!
For every take-out and delivery meal you place with the Garage this week at 610-615-5189, our donor will purchase a Ron's gift card for $25 that will go to a local teacher to show them some love!
And we have a MATCHER!
We were worried about having enough gift cards and we're excited to announce that a second donor has stepped up and will double down on all take-out and delivery pre-orders placed between when we open daily at noon and 4 PM when our regular dinner service starts! Your early pre-orders for no-contact pickup and delivery will purchase TWO Ron's gift cards for our local teachers!
Would you please help us break through the social media algorithms with a share, a comment, or a like?
When our friends at Ron's announced that they were taking their turn to "run the play" for COVID exposure, it didn't take long to rally some help. Just like ourselves and Limoncello Chester Springs they're doing it right and taking care to bring our local communities delicious fare as safely as possible.
While they take a few days off to clean and disinfect the restaurant, get staff tested, and re-open safely, they could use some extra revenue. This #GarageGivesBack should help a little at least.
While we bring you two great menus that are quite different, we do have a few things in common with Ron's...
For example, we both have trucks on the wall! They have their beloved school bus and we've got a few interesting pieces of automobile art like the 50s Chevy on our back wall.
On a more personal level, some of our staff and some of their staff have worked with each other in prior lives and have been more than co-workers, they are friends. Real restaurant industry extended family.
Like most extended families, they've had families along the way and have watched and supported each other as their kids grew up. Both restaurants count families and kids from our local communities as regulars and favorites.
Where there's family and kids, there's school and teachers. Our kids spend more time at school than they do at home. We think that one of the unsung "essential" worker groups is our local teachers. Without much fuss, they've adapted to remote learning, hybrid models, complex safety protocols, PPE, and still found the patience for anxious and frustrated parents and students.
So this week, all of the gift cards that our donor purchases from Ron's will go to local teachers.
So here's the scoop on this #GarageGivesBack which starts today and will run through the end of the week (November 1):
We have a donor, a local family, and they've raised their hands to help us, help Ron's.
They've offered to repeat what we did for Limoncello and they are donating $25 for every take-out and delivery order that the Garage takes today through November 1st to purchase a Ron's Gift Card to be donated to a good cause: our local teachers.
This family has dined at Ron's restaurants since waaaaaaaay back and remembers when it was called "Ron's Schoolhouse". When their own kids were little, the old school bus front end was a favorite for the kiddos. The mom is a retired grade school science teacher.
And now our double down donor is going to buy a second Ron's gift card for all early orders placed with us between noon and 4 PM daily!
We're going to get local teachers gift cards to thank them for everything that they've done to help keep our local kids engaged and learning through these times.
We're super excited about this week's #GarageGivesBack. Our local teachers deserve a thank you.
This #GarageGivesBack is a win - win - win....
Local teachers win.
Ron's gets gift card revenue to support them doing the right and safest thing handling exposure to the virus.
The Garage takes some take-out/delivery orders to keep the staff working and earning and paying their bills.
We'll be using 30-minute order windows, please give us a ring at 610-615-5189.
The Plan (Scroll Down for More New Updates for Dining Options)
Our plan focuses on two key elements:
1. How to keep to a minimum the number of staff working closely in the restaurant at any one time.
Our goal is less than 10 staff at any time (we have two HVAC "air zones" kitchen and dining room and so we are comfortable with up to 10 staff on each side of the wall but will focus on fewer if possible. The kitchen also has a "negative air pressure" so it is not recirculating and also has mostly hot surfaces where the CDC says the virus is not viable. We also have our maintenance guy looking at the status and upgrading of HVAC filters).
2. A menu which delivers fresh, safe, tasty food as you've come to expect at the Garage and also allows for simplification so that it can be produced and delivered more efficiently with fewer staff and staff interactions in close groups.
So what do you need to know?
Delivery / Pickup: Wednesday through Sunday 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Place Orders: Wednesday through Sunday 12:00 pm - 7:00 pm
To order: call the restaurant between 12 PM and 7 PM Wed - Sun.
When you call, you will be offered a time slot for your curbside pickup or delivery in 30 min windows from 4 PM to 8 PM e.g. you can place an order for 7-7:30 for example. You can also order for future days and time windows any time this week.
We will have limited "slots" available for each 30-minute order window to allow us: fewer staff in the kitchen for production, fewer staff in the front packing and delivering to curbside/delivery, and we also hope to make the timing more reliable and predictable. If you want a peak time slot, get your orders in early.
This approach will also allow us to attempt to accommodate dietary restrictions as our Chef and kitchen staff will have time to adjust menu items for specific needs. We can't promise we can always accommodate but we promise that we will always try. Please let the phone person know what you need and we will get back to you.
The menu is changing.
Please check out our updated menu as linked to our Facebook page and website.
This menu has two sections: a more compact a la cart section of Garage favorites and a family dinner section. There are some new things too.
A few operational bits:
We are using our own servers and front of house staff for delivery. As a result and because of the operational complexities, we are discontinuing Door Dash during the Covid-19 period. If you live within approximately 5 miles, please consider using our delivery. This will help us to keep folks working and paid, it's a safe way to get your food to you, and you don't need to wait if your order is not ready upon your arrival.
For curbside pickup, please stay in your car and call us or flag down our person outside. We can't allow diners in the restaurant and we don't want you to be cold waiting on the sidewalk and possibly coming in close contact with other folks waiting.
Our curbside and deliveries will continue to be no-contact.
We are continuing and improving on all recommended health procedures. Staff will continue to wear gloves and face coverings and our heightened cleaning and disinfecting protocols remain in place.
We will continue to provide delivery of your grocery orders from Acme. Let us know when you call-in your food order so we can coordinate with your online ACME pickup order.
Finally, if you know of a neighbor who is compromised, quarantined, in financial or medical distress and who needs help, please let us know. We'll try to help. We're not built to be an aid organization per se but in these times we all need to help one another and we will always do whatever we can do.
Stay healthy, stay positive...
The Garage Team
The Garage Great Outdoor Plan
The Garage Great Outdoor Plan
Test launching this weekend, June 13th, on Saturday and Sunday for brunch from 11-3 with live music and a new brunch menu.
Almost Minnesota on Saturday and Dan Frantz on Sunday playing 11-3 from the sidewalk stage.
Come help us figure this out and enjoy the return of brunch at the Garage! Weather depending but it looks good so far.
Our goals for going alfresco:
A fun simple out-door experience.
Safely executed for you and our crew.
Adding new menu and entertainment that you’ll enjoy.
Keeping the restaurant going and open.
Keeping our full team earning, & working, & paying their bills.
Taking care of our local communities.
We are also keeping as-is our current no-contact take-out and delivery of a la carte, family meals, and grill kits for those who want or need to be more careful.
For those who just want the deets now, scroll down to: “So what do you need to know…”
Please help us break through the social media algorithms with a share, a like, and your comments.
Please let us explain our thinking process as we’ve done since the start:
We’d really welcome your feedback on our outdoor plans. Civil discourse, please. Be polite and kind with your views or we will curate.
When we wrote a few weeks back that things were weird and going to get weirder, we couldn’t imagine that our State government would enter into a stalemate over how to approach these next phases of the pandemic. With everyone now interpreting what is “official” in terms of rules and procedures, we’re in the wild-west of the biz like no-one has ever seen before.
So what to do, what to do, what should WE do….
At the Garage, we entered the Yellow phase a bit more cautiously.
There were a number of reasons:
On our crew, we have folks personally impacted with deaths from the virus and we have members of the crew who are seriously at-risk. Restaurants, because of staff levels and broad public contact, are higher-risk for viral spread to start.
Above all, we want to protect our Owner and Chef who’s carrying a donor’s heart. We love him and we respect every day that a heart donor allowed him to come back to the biz with the Garage.
As a BYOB restaurant, and given the limited tables we can have under official guidance, opening outdoors with the added complexities, costs, staffing, etc. didn’t make financial sense.
Providing safe access to bathrooms for outdoor diners who’d have to transit the open dining floor now reconfigured and optimized for no-contact take-out and delivery would mean additional risk for diners and the crew.
As a result of the above, we came back to our three key pillars for operations during this crisis:
1. Keep the restaurant open and SAFELY serving our community #HonestEats.
2. Keep the full crew working, and earning, and paying their bills.
3. Help our local communities in any way possible.
In the end, these pillars of our own became a more useful “North Star” than whatever conflicting “guidance” we’re getting out of Harrisburg.
So what do you need to know about outdoor dining at the Garage?
We have added three outdoor seating elements:
1. 10 picnic tables and umbrellas with good social distancing located in the grass area across from our patio.
2. Freshly laid out patio and sidewalk tables for social distancing.
3. New car-side dining with 1950s style window trays and keeping empty parking spaces between cars for social distancing and to allow for BYO lawn chairs if you like.
These seating options are not reserved and are open to the public and will not have full table service.
In the spirit of these past months and weeks, we welcome anyone to use these tables including to mix and match or just grab food from our neighbor restaurants Pizzeria Visco and Lemon Tree Asian Restaurant. If you flag us down, we’re also happy to bring you a car-side tray for food from our neighbors just please return the tray to us 😉
Service will continue to be safe, social distance, no-contact. Expect our servers in masks and gloves and observing the same safety protocols that we’ve observed from the outset of all this.
Ordering: You may call the restaurant from your table or car and place an order or ask us to come take an order. You can flag down a staff member outside. Or stop by our service station on the porch.
Menus: Posted online on: the web, Facebook, and we’ll have disposable paper menus if you’d prefer. New menus that are “quick service” are being added including weekend brunch which is BACK.
Orders: Will come safely bagged in to-go containers just as it does now for no-contact take-out and delivery but will include disposable utensils and condiments. Drinks will be available for those dining on-site.
Service: Our crew will have a Service Station outside on our patio and you’re welcome to flag them down to pop over to your table or car. Just remember: this isn’t full service, it’s Take-Out+ 🙂
Trash and recycling: Please use the paper take-out bag to collect your trash and just flag down our crew or drop it at the Service Station on the porch and we'll dispose of an recycle it all. Please don't leave litter in the public spaces.
Bathrooms: We are working on a configuration to provide safe access to bathrooms from the rear patio door. Diners will transit a sectioned off portion of the dining room primarily serviced by its own rooftop HVAC system. This will create another separate area to keep in-house service, kitchen, and phone staff safely apart. We'll be doubling down on disinfecting bathrooms and in this area during times when bathrooms are open to outside diners. Note: we may not have this in place immediately and Acme provides bathrooms accessible to the public.
As our service model settles in expect us to add fun and pop-up elements. We plan to have live music from the sidewalk and other entertainment to enjoy while eating from us and our neighbors alfresco. Stay tuned, we’re working on some fun stuff!
As with every step since about March 15th, this is something new and we’re not really sure how it will work out.
We hope you’ll come and help us work out the kinks and have some fun outside at the Garage.
Again, our no-contact take-out and delivery processes and procedures during this time:
The Garage is taking orders by phone at 610-615-5189 from 12 PM to 7 PM Wednesday through Friday and 11 AM to 7 PM Saturday and Sunday.
Meals are available for no-contact pickup and delivery from 4 PM to 8 PM in 30-minute windows.
If you are picking up, please stay in your car and flag down our staff out front or call the restaurant, do not enter the restaurant.
If you call and ask, we will attempt to accommodate all dietary and special requests.
We have an adapted menu linked to our Facebook and Web pages with family-style meals.
Staff is all working at minimum wage and sharing equally in the pool of your tips.
Delivery drivers are our own staff and are being reimbursed for fuel by our investors and stakeholders. We are delivering in an approximate 5-mile radius but will try to accommodate special requests.
We are delivering Acme orders to those who need this; please call to coordinate.
As always, if you know of a neighbor or person in our community who’s compromised, quarantined, or in need, lets us know. We’ll do everything we can to help.
Stay safe. Stay healthy. #GarageFamily
This is the most important read since March 15th
This post is long but we think it’s worth your time
This photo was taken Sunday, March 15th at 10 AM.
The night before, we decided to close for dine-in...
The night before, we had a record night with the Garage full of happy revelers and diners.
It seems like forever ago…
We’d like to talk about what happens next.
After reading this, we hope that you’ll consider sharing with your friends and local restaurant groups to break through the social media algorithms and to spread this message.
We hope you feel what we have to say here is important.
We welcome your comments.
We started this journey together with you, our local community, and with full transparency. A series of detailed posts and emails about how we, at The Garage, were processing, adapting, and addressing the rapidly changing environment that was coming with the emergence of the Corona Virus impact on our world.
We took things seriously.
We never thought it was going to go so long…
From that very first Garage leadership meeting, owner and Chef Lee Krasley led our #GarageFamily with three guiding principals from which we’ve never wavered over these last weeks and months:
1. Stay open and feed our community safely.
2. Keep our staff, all of them, working and earning and paying their bills. Even if it meant paying staff who had to self-quarantine and couldn’t come in.
3. Do whatever we could to help our local community in a time of need.
Last night we brought our #GarageFamily together again for the first time in a while for an all-hands meeting.
Unlike in March, most of the crew were on Zoom. Just a few were in-house from the evening's no-contact delivery and take-out service and they were spread around the floor at safe distances wearing their masks.
This is what we shared with them and what we’d like our community to consider. Not just in regards to the Garage but in consideration of all of our local restaurant community and also all of our local small businesses...
The last weeks and months have been hard. Incredibly hard. This has been an unprecedented storm for our local small businesses and restaurants. As restaurants, we have been allowed to be open in a limited take-out capacity as “essential”. Truly, this may not have been so much of a blessing or a curse. At least if you’re closed, you know what’s what.
For our restaurants, being open in this limited capacity has meant putting staff at risk every opening hour while also searching desperately for a business model that limits losses.
Make no mistake, there are very very few restaurants that are breaking even as take-out and delivery only.
Maybe there are none.
We made decisions, outlined in our guiding principals above that we knew would mean monthly losses for the Garage but these were the right thing to do. We don’t take lightly that many of our peers are in a different place and that they are fighting for their very existence...
There is some good news in it all though.
Our local community of restaurants and diners and other small businesses has uniquely risen to this challenge. We survey the restaurant market across the country. Maybe you don’t know, but our dining community must be one of the most progressive anywhere.
With social media groups for diners and restaurants to interact too the amazing resiliency and creativity on how to best offer take-out and delivery to the amazing charitable work for those most in need in our community... We are very very lucky indeed.
Our diners and foodies are especially lucky. If you don’t live around here, this is probably not at all like what you’d experience elsewhere.
Now, on June 5th, things are not getting better but instead, they are about to get even more difficult…
What do I mean you ask?
We’re re-opening! Outside dining on Friday night June 5th! Let’s make plans now to head to our favorite restaurant with an outdoor space! Wooohooooo….
Not so fast folks...
We beg you please consider what your restaurant community is about to go through…
Politicians are great for sound bites.
Sound bite:
"The Governor said: Restaurants may re-open for outside dining on June 5th.”
Reality:
Your favorite restaurant has six pages of procedures and protocols to work out how to implement and a widely varied attitude towards this whole thing from their dining audiences.
As just one example, we have a seating limit for outdoor spaces based on providing 6’ “runway” of space between the back of every chair from every direction...
At the Garage, as an example, that means we can fit four four person tables on our porch. The porch normally seats 50 (plus dogs).
To service diners at those four tables now, we have the rest of the list of protocols: single-use menus, no condiments on the table, no refillable anything, not only all staff in masks but we’re asked to police diners to ensure that they are wearing masks to and from the tables...and on and on.
Your restaurant community is now scrambling to figure out this new set of rules and regs and ones that the State says it’ll be enforcing not just with Health Department staff but with the State Police.
No-contact take-out and delivery is starting to look easy.
Think things have been weird so far?
For restaurants it’s about to get weirder AND a lot trickier.
In addition to what will be a fluid and changing regulatory environment, we will be dealing with a wide range of public opinion on the whole situation. Some folks will think it’s time to just go back to normal and others are still fearful enough not to consider eating food not cooked in their own kitchen.
All of those public points of view will be coming at our restaurants and our servers while they’re stressed out, trying to retrain to the new and changing regs, and adapting on the fly all of their processes, again…
Our restaurants will apply their creativity and you’ll see a variety of ways to approach this new landscape. Restaurant adaptations will be “compared” to one another…
Sadly, the most creative approaches to opening outside under these conditions still won’t get most restaurants close to break even, never mind to profitability.
This is the practical reality for the service industry as we enter this next phase folks.
We are not “going back to normal”, we are entering the next phase with more and more rounds of changing requirements and adaptions.
So why do we want you to know all of this?
First, we’d like you to consider that one of the best things you can do for your restaurants is keep up the support for what they’re doing now with curbside and delivery. They know how to do this now and it’s providing them much needed cash-flow.
Second, we’d like to ask for your patience, support, and understanding as your local restaurants attempt to “pivot” on a multi-dimensional and fluid playing field. In this new mode, everyone from the owner to the person washing up in “dish” is going to be stressed out and pushed in ways that are hard for most to imagine.
The folks in the business love our diners and they’ve worked very very hard for our local diners since this all started back on March 15th.
Now, they’re in a really tough spot financially and this “reopening” isn’t going to improve their lot much. This all looks to be more of a marathon than a sprint in order to get back to diner levels that make most places work financially.
No-one likes to change habits and procedures. The folks in the “biz” have had nothing but change for weeks and months. They’ve already run a marathon. They’re pretty tired already. Now they’re starting a second marathon with even more uncertainty. They have no choice but to do what they can to survive so they’re going to set off but they're going to be tired, defensive, and short-tempered at times...
Every one of them has had moments they wanted to give up.
Every one of them has had moments where they deeply envy those working from home on laptops and Zoom who are at the other end of the phone placing their order for the evening’s no-contact take-out or delivery meal...
So please, we ask of you all respectfully: Please please treat your local restaurants and small businesses with the love and care with which they’ve shown to this community since they were transported overnight to this alien world back on March 15th 2020.
We have a long way yet to go together.
Your local restaurants and small business will need a hand up from time to time and sometimes maybe a shoulder to cry on….
This week #GarageGivesBack is working hard to get the Chester County Food Bank the $7,500 matching donation offered to us for their senior meals program.
Here's how you can help:
Consider calling us at 610.615.5189 to contribute $5 for a senior meal, $15 for a food box, or $25 for a week's worth of meals for a senior in need in our community.
Or just place an order! For every order we take this week, our stakeholders will add $10 for the Food Bank. Any order this week counts including: a food order of any size, making a donation to the staff tip pool of any amount, or purchasing a $5, $15, $25 Food Bank meal!
Come get senior boxes and decorate, decorate, decorate!
When you return them we'll give you an order of Jeff Chef March's famous bread pudding AND we have a donor who will add $10 to the Food Bank's fund!
Again, our processes and procedures during this time:
The Garage is taking orders by phone at 610-615-5189 from 12 PM to 7 PM Wednesday through Sunday.
Meals are available for no-contact pickup and delivery from 4 PM to 8 PM in 30-minute windows.
If you are picking up, please stay in your car and flag down our staff out front or call the restaurant.
If you call and ask, we will attempt to accommodate all dietary and special requests.
We have an adapted menu linked to our Facebook and Web pages with family-style meals.
Staff is all working at minimum wage and sharing equally in the pool of your tips.
Delivery drivers are our own staff and are being reimbursed for fuel by our investors and stakeholders. We are delivering in an approximate 5-mile radius but will try to accommodate special requests.
We are delivering Acme orders to those who need this; please call to coordinate.
As always, if you know of a neighbor or person in our community who’s compromised, quarantined, or in need, lets us know. We’ll do everything we can to help.
Stay safe. Stay healthy. #GarageFamily
Sams walking a 22 mile memorial
What day is it? Today!
Now we only have:
Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow
But the Garage knows it’s Wednesday!
And…weeee’re back for the week!
Let us also clue everyone in on this day coming up too:
It’s Memorial Day this Monday.
So let us tell you an inspirational story about one of our young staff, Private First Class Sam Hudson U.S. Army, and his passionate plea for this week’s #GarageGivesBack…
Please help us break through the social media algorithms with a share, a comment, and a like.
For those who want the quick story:
In memorial of the 22 veterans a day who commit suicide, Sam will be hiking 22 miles in his gear carrying the flag on this Saturday (rain date Sunday) and we encourage our community to turn out to support him. We will have various ways and ideas for how to do this over the next couple of days. Stay tuned!
This week @GarageGivesBack is raising funds in Sam’s name for Homes For Our Troops (hfotusa.org).
Please give us a call at 610.615.5189 to help with a $5, $15, or $25 donations (or multiples) for this donation to Homes for our Troops throughout the week.
Since this is a big weekend to "grill in your bubble", for every order we take of our new Grillin’ & Chillin’ Kits, we are donating $40 to Homes for our Troops AND you'll get a $40 off coupon for future use when we can re-open for normal dine-in service.
We’re looking for a matcher or multiplier to make Sam’s #GarageGivesBack even BIGGER, stay tuned!
So back to Sam’s plea for this week’s #GarageGivesBack…
We’ve told you before how you have inspired the young staff at the Garage during this crisis through your support of these #GarageGivesBack efforts and how their participation has had a lasting impact on them. Well, Sam Hudson who is one of the crew, would be an excellent example.
Last week Sam chased us tirelessly as he “had an idea”. When we finally had a calm moment to chat, Sam truly inspired us with his pitch for this week’s #GarageGivesBack.
Sam said:
"The military has always been a huge part of my life. My brother joined the Air Force when I was in middle school and that inspired me to follow in his footsteps.
I joined the Army immediately after graduation from high school. I have always wanted to join and serve in any way that I can. Being in the Army Reserves for the past 2 years has taught me many lessons, and I will use those lessons for the rest of my life. "
So we got it, Memorial Day is coming and #GarageGivesBack should honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service…
Sam went on:
“I plan to do a 22-mile hike this weekend. I’ll be wearing my gear and carrying the flag to raise awareness and I’d like to propose we choose Homes for our Troops for this weeks #GarageGivesBack beneficiary”
So we said:
“Ok Sam, we like that but wouldn’t that be better for Veteran’s Day? Shouldn’t we be honoring those who we lost for Memorial Day?”
And that’s when Sam really floored us…
Sam said: “Of course, I understand that. Here is my point of view… No one deserves honor on Memorial Day than those who served and died in the line of service. There is another group though who also should be considered…
There is a statistic that says on average 22 veterans a day commit suicide from suffering with mental health problems. To me, these vets deserve a proper memorial as well.
So with that in mind, that is why I will be doing 22 miles in a day this weekend.”
Wow, just wow…
We wondered: how does Homes for our Troops fit into all this?
With a little more background, we got to understand: in many cases, vets who are struggling and who are highly at risk of suicide are the same profile as the severely injured vets for whom Homes for our Troops is providing a home. Their tagline is “Building Homes, Rebuilding Lives”.
So, just because Sam hadn’t rattled us enough already, he closed with:
"What better way is there to honor those who served and who were so troubled when they came back that they took their own lives than to support an organization who is providing homes and support for ones still with us so that they might not make the choice to check-out.”
Ok, now we’re all teary and so, of course, we all agreed: this week #GarageGivesBack is in honor of Sam’s 22-mile walk and we are raising funds to donate in his name to Homes for our Troops.
We’re never satisfied though and so we’re now working the phones and we’re hoping to organize some real home-town community support for Sam as well as the fund raiser.
Some ideas we’ve thought of for you all in the community to come out and safely support Sam while maintaining your “bubble” and safely social distancing:
We’re going to reach out to the police, fire, and front line responders on Sam’s route to possibly give him an escort.
We’re going to encourage our community to turn out along the route and root Sam on.
We’re thinking that our friends from the local car and motorcycle clubs, like Top Dead Center Motor Club and Harley-Davidson of Chester Springs could organize a drive past.
Maybe our local Chester County Council, BSA, and Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania might turn out to root him on or walk part or all of his route (separated with a safe social distance and masks of course).
Who knows where this “pop up” Memorial day support might take us.
Stay tuned for Sam’s 22-mile walk route and more details for this Saturday (rain-date Sunday)…
Again, our processes and procedures during this time:
The Garage is taking orders by phone at 610-615-5189 from 12 PM to 7 PM Wednesday through Sunday.
Meals are available for no-contact pickup and delivery from 4 PM to 8 PM in 30-minute windows.
If you are picking up, please stay in your car and flag down our staff out front or call the restaurant.
If you call and ask, we will attempt to accommodate all dietary and special requests.
We have an adapted menu linked to our Facebook and Web pages with family-style meals.
Staff is all working at minimum wage and sharing equally in the pool of your tips.
Delivery drivers are our own staff and are being reimbursed for fuel by our investors and stakeholders. We are delivering in an approximate 5-mile radius but will try to accommodate special requests.
We are delivering Acme orders to those who need this; please call to coordinate.
As always, if you know of a neighbor or person in our community who’s compromised, quarantined, or in need, lets us know. We’ll do everything we can to help.
Stay safe. Stay healthy. #GarageFamily
The greatest generation needs us now
We’ve heard that some folks feel like ordering from us means that they have to contribute to #GarageGivesBack and nothing is farther from the truth.
Please never be worried about ordering from the Garage.
We understand that folks in these times may only be able to afford food and may not be able or want to tip or participate in our weekly #GarageGivesBack campaigns for our community. And that’s totally OK!
We also know some folks in our community need real help right now, a meal, a grocery order delivered, etc., and we will do anything we can to help. Please let us know and we promise to try.
Now, if you’ll allow us, we’d like to inspire…
This week, we are focusing on our seniors, and we are introducing a truly epic senior, Myrtle.
Please help us break through the social media algorithms with a share, a comment, and a like.
Restaurants live and die on their local community, people who live within a 5-mile radius. In the Garage’s “circle” there are over 8,000 seniors. So this week is close to home for our community.
This week’s #GarageGivesBack asks you to consider helping to get meals to Chester County seniors who are really in need during this protracted period of “shelter in place”.
Seniors are quickly becoming the most “at-risk” group from the virus. In some places the majority of deaths are seniors. Our parents, and grandparents… One of our own managers lost his grandma to the virus.
The greatest generation is now fighting another big war, this one against a virus, when they should be bouncing grand-kids on their knee.
To cut to the chase:
This week you can call us at 610-615-5189 to purchase a $5 frozen meal, a $15 senior food box, or a $25 box of a week’s worth of frozen meals to go to an at-risk senior in Chester County. You can order one or multiples if you want. You can order senior meals without getting food from the Garage.
As above, you can also get food from the Garage and not feel obligated AT ALL to participate by purchasing one of these senior meals.
But, what about getting a free order of Chef Jeff’s coveted bread pudding?
By the way, Chef Jeff’s bread puddling fan club has been getting a bit out of control lately. Seriously, ladies, he’s already taken. Please stop hanging around the back door after hours, bread pudding is ALWAYS sold out.
Ok, here’s the scoop on free bread pudding and our first epic senior quote:
The meals for the at-risk seniors are produced by the Chester County Food Bank and delivered in boxes to their partners who get them to the seniors in need. Originally these were just plain white boxes. Keep it simple and low cost, focus on the meals, right?
Well, seniors felt a bit uncomfortable asking for meals and so the Food Bank’s partners knew that there were seniors in need who just wouldn’t take the meals. They tried everything. Still too few takers…
So many great things come from unintentional consequences, right?
One day on a sort of a whim to throw together a young school-age program on short notice, one of the Food Bank staff had kids decorate the plain white boxes that the senior meals are delivered in.
Shortly thereafter, demand exploded!
Ok, well that’s interesting, why?
Myrtle, an epic senior who is almost 100 now and lives right nearby, explained to the caseworker quite simply, and then it all made sense…
Myrtle said:
“I need the meals, I really do, but accepting a meal hand-out is hard. Consider what I’ve been through over a lifetime of ninety some years. I ought to be able to take care of feeding myself by now. It’s hard to accept free meals.
When I had no choice one week, I was really hungry, and when the caseworker delivered the meal it was in this amazingly colorful hand crayoned box. I was delighted. It brought back so many memories…
Well after that it wasn’t so much a hand-out, it was a gift. If I’m honest, I wanted to get more meals just to enjoy the art.
The decorated boxes feed my tummy but they also feed my soul.
Now I’m hooked.”
The greatest generation, indeed!
So this week, you can call the Garage at 610-615-5189 and ask for a box or multiple boxes to decorate at home with your families.
Call and let us know next week that you’re bringing the decorated boxes back and a free order of Chef Jeff’s rarefied bread pudding is yours!
So many ways this week to help our local community’s at-risk seniors. Give us a call to jump in, the water’s warm: 610-615-5189.
We've lost a good friend
This week we're helping one that's close to home.
We've lost a member of our #GarageFamily.
Our friend and bartender, Josh Moyer, left this earth and he leaves behind his son and his devastated extended family of parents, siblings, friends, and co-workers.
Josh was much loved. We are all a bit numb, really.
Our own staff is pooling tips and pursuing their own fundraising efforts to contribute to this week's #GarageGivesBack.
So this week #GarageGivesBack will raise funds in order to help Josh' son, who is just beginning to pursue post-secondary education, with all of its costs and uncertainties, and also Josh's family after this devastating news.
We'd be grateful if you'd help us break through the social media algorithms with a share, a comment, and a like.
This week your tips will support the staff's pool to support Josh and we are also offering contributions to the pool for Josh's son and family in $10 increments. Just let us know when you call at 610-615-5189 if you'd contribute for Josh. You don't need to place a food order to participate.
We would love to phone Josh's mom Sunday evening with a wonderful Mother's Day update about how our community came together to support one of our own and a big donation toward her grandson's future.
By way of a brief update on prior #GarageGivesBack programs:
Our first two weeks, you all raised over $15k for the Chester County Food Bank. In addition, our suppliers have sent pallets of meat to them directly
Then you raised $5,000 for a pre-order deposit for Snouts and Sprouts local micro-farm to keep operating.
Then you raised over $18,000 in restaurant gift cards for take-out and delivery meals for our front line responders from about 15 local restaurants in partnership with Montesano Bros Trattoria & Catering, Ron's Original Bar & Grille, Stickman Brews, Bright Spot Cafe, Sabatino's Grill. These are being distributed now.
Then you all purchased over 1,000 meals to be delivered from the Garage, Montesano Brothers, and Stickman Brews to Safe Harbor of Chester County!
Then you contributed over $7500 for gift cards for needed basic supplies and the Epicurean Garage will provide a Mother's Day meal for 38 moms and kids from Home of the Sparrow - Pennsylvania.
This week, we hope you'll consider helping us help Josh's family.
We have updated one of our procedures as well:
We have been able to make physical plant and systems changes to allow our order window to overlap food production and delivery while not compromising the safety of our staff or your meals.
So we are now taking orders by phone between 12 PM and 7 PM vs 10 AM and 3 PM.
These moms need a lift.
This week let’s celebrate moms!
We’re asking for your help for two very special groups of moms as we go into Mother's Day next Sunday!
For those who just want to cut to the chase, it's an easy #GarageGivesBack this week…
We want our young staffers to share the love with their moms and we are also going to help a very special group of moms in our community who really deserve a lift. Soooo….
All of your tips to the Garage staff pool this week will be MATCHED dollar for dollar from a local businesswoman for support for moms and their families who are working with Home of the Sparrow - Pennsylvania.
Give us a ring at 1-610-615-5189 to just contribute to the pool or place an order for a tasty dinner tonight!
Please help us break through the social media algorithms to spread the word with a share, a comment, and a like!
Now for the details...
During this crisis, we have raised all of our servers from the minimum wage of $2.83 for tipped staff to the standard minimum wage of $7.25. At the same time, other members of the staff took a cut so everyone was making base minimum wage.
And then we all agreed that your tips are pooled and divided equally.
The staff tip pool at the Garage this week will ensure two things:
First, that our young, hardworking, passionate, and essential staff will have some extra funds to make their mother’s day great while also continuing to work, earn, and pay their bills (many are covering bills for parents and siblings who are not working).
Second, the MATCHING dollar for dollar on all of your tips will go to purchasing much-needed gift cards for local single moms and their kids who are being looked after by Home of the Sparrow - Pennsylvania. These families are socially isolating at home without the support of schools and often the mom is out of work.
With your help, they too will have a wonderful Mother’s Day when they receive gift cards to purchase basic items that they really need, for example, school supplies for kids studying from home, etc.
Here’s a recent, and close to our hearts, example of how Home of the Sparrow helps these moms:
"As a new employee in the restaurant industry, Margaret was one of the first to lose her job when this all hit. With the help of Home of the Sparrow, she applied for and received food and health benefits along with referrals for a new job."
In addition to this much-needed help to purchase critical items, the Epicurean Garage will send each family a Mother’s Day FEAST along with the gift cards from this week’s #GarageGivesBack.
Home of the Sparrow does such important work that keeps women and children right here in our communities out of homelessness. They're just an awesome positive organization that brings the possibility of a bright future to moms and kids who would otherwise be struggling.
Some of the things Home of the Sparrow helps to provide these moms and kids with are: eviction prevention, meals, and household supplies that have become hard to find during this difficult time. This week, with your help, #GarageGivesBack is piling on to help them to do even more!
Imagine how far your tips will go to making many many moms happy on May 8th!
Better together, 3 local businesses join in to help.
Community is the key, we love it when dominoes fall...
First a bit of an update and then some domino stories from our local business communities...
The Thursday 4/16 Update:
We're off to slow but steady start with about $1,000 so far in this week's program to get meals to our front line responders who are helping our community and who are exposed to heavy viral loads every day.
We know that this tip pool will grow throughout the week. We love that our own young staff is voluntarily giving back this week.
As a reminder to yesterday's full post, the tip pool from this week will be used to buy restaurant gift cards from our fellow nearby restaurants (who are also desperately in need of this support too) for distribution to our local front line workers. We are donating an equal amount of Epicurean Garage gift cards so that none of this money goes to ourselves.
Please help us with a share, comment, or like to help us to get the message out to many many folks.
Many small additions add up to a big win for our front line workers.
We're answering the phones from 10 AM daily at 610.615.5189 and folks do not need to order a meal from us to donate to the program through a tip only contribution. We do request that food orders from us for no-contact delivery or take-out are in by 3 PM daily.
Now check this out, here are some dominoes...
#GarageGivesBack was never about the Garage itself, it started as a simple idea to keep our local community's access to safe food going, keeping our crew working, earning, paying their bills, and keeping folks in our community, who needed to stay isolated, to stay safe, secure, and healthy. Our investors and stakeholders assured us the business would weather the storm so that's never been a goal of any of this.
The ultimate love is when a "competitor" comes to the door and asks to join in. The big corporate buzz word is coopetition. Restaurant folks are a unique breed. They compete and they fight every day for "their place" to win diners and then after their own shifts you'll often find them having a pint at their "competitor's" bar. They are really a community of themselves.
The fact is, there's plenty of restaurant capacity in our community for everyone to get a piece of the action. Remember restaurants live and die in a five-mile circle of communities... You all like different kinds of food, places, and service depending on your interests and moods and you'll dine all around in that five-mile circle based on that.
In a little town like ours, Eagle PA, every restaurant wins if the town has a great variety and becomes a sort of eatery destination. Think of larger examples like Phoenixville or West Chester or smaller ones like Malvern.
And at this moment, for our restaurant community, the industry stats are frightening. Only 40% of full-service eateries are open at all. The ones that are open are facing a loss of 60% of their revenue vs this time last year. 2 in 5 restaurants are expected to fail during this crisis and that skews heavily toward the independents... This is why we built this week's program to help the front lines by helping our restaurant community too.
You can imagine how excited and blown away we were when Vincent Montesano, our neighbor at Montesano Bros Trattoria & Catering, walked up the hill yesterday to see us and said:
"I want to help feed the front lines too. You guys have people's attention so I want to join the #GarageGivesBack effort. Tell your people contributing this week that for every $25 you guys raise through this program for gift cards from my place, we're matching with a donation of a second $25 gift card to distribute to our local front lines."
Vinny is doubling down to help get gift cards for take-out and delivery meals to our local front line workers during this crisis. Bravo Vinny! 🙏❤️ Now we're thinking a new hashtag is in order #BetterTogether!
And Vinny is not the only one that you all have inspired to join #GarageGivesBack in taking care of our local community.
In the last 24 hours, two other local businesses have announced or are planning to start programs!
Eagle Service Center, Inc. has a program to provide FREE oil and filter changes NOT ONLY for our local front line responders but to all of our local essential workers. Check out their Facebook page for details.
Today, Matt Rehrig, the owner of Exton Fit Body Boot Camp will also announce a program where members of his 28 day stay healthy from home program can earn a donation of up to a $28 gift card from the Epicurean Garage to add to the pool for front lines first responder. How cool is that? We're so humbled that our investors and stakeholders are going to offer to cover the cost of any Garage crew members who want to join Matt's 28 day challenge and earn first responders a gift card!
What other businesses and donors will come forward to use #GarageGivesBack as a local community vehicle to help others? Every week we are startled, humbled, and honored that these calls are just showing up.
In the last analysis and when the chips are down, it's all about our community. We wish we could do more and we know that these initiatives are "hyper-local". At least in some small way we are trying to take care of each other in our little five-mile circle.
Maybe that's why the slogan is: Think Global, Act Local?
Again, our processes and procedures during this time:
The Garage is taking orders by phone at 610-615-5189 from 10 AM to 3 PM Wednesday through Sunday.
Meals are available for no-contact pickup and delivery from 4 PM to 8 PM in 30-minute windows.
If you are picking up, please stay in your car and flag down our staff out front or call the restaurant.
If you call and ask, we will attempt to accommodate all dietary and special requests.
We have an adapted menu linked to our Facebook and Web pages with family-style meals.
Staff is all working at minimum wage and sharing equally in the pool of your tips.
Delivery drivers are our own staff and are being reimbursed for fuel by our investors and stakeholders. We are delivering in an approximate 5-mile radius but will try to accommodate special requests.
We are delivering Acme orders to those who need this; please call to coordinate.
As always, if you know of a neighbor or person in our community who’s compromised, quarantined, or in need, lets us know. We’ll do everything we can to help.
Stay safe. Stay healthy. #GarageFamily
Front line responders need to eat
This Wednesday, April 15, the Garage Gives Back launches it's most aggressive campaign during the current crisis.
There's a full backstory that we'll provide in tomorrow's write up but today we're cutting to this week's program details.
This week's program will help OUR FELLOW RESTAURANTS AND PROVIDE FIRST RESPONDERS meals via restaurant gift cards to the front-line workers in our local community.
The short story:
Our crew offered to forgo tips this week to help others and 100% of your tips this week will be equally divided and go to purchasing $25 gift cards from our fellow restaurants who are offering take-out and delivery during this crisis and who are within our communities in a five-mile radius.
We will donate an equal number of our own Epicurean Garage $25 gift cards.
We will then distribute these gift cards to the front lines and first responders in our local communities in the same five-mile radius.
A generous local restaurateur approached us about doing something with Garage Gives Back and when he heard about this program, he did not want our own generous young staff to be out their tips. So, his organization will be covering our servers tips at the last four-week average level so that they will also be able to earn and pay their bills.
So, this week - our Garage Gives Back community has the opportunity to:
Support not just the Garage but our fellow local restaurants who are also struggling to offer take-out and delivery in the crisis.
Send gift cards for meals to front line responders who are at risk every day to support our community and deserve a take-out and delivery meal of their choice at the time they need it most.
Continue to help our essential staff to work and earn and pay their bills.
Our community is not just you all and the Garage. Our fellow restaurants, our front line responsders, all of us who live and work and go to school in these five miles - we are in this together and we hope that you'll agree that this week's Garage Gives Back spreads that love.
You may phone in a tip donation to this program without ordering food or you may add it to your food order for no-contact take-out and delivery this week. Our phone number is 610.615.5189 and we will have phone staff available today through Sunday from 10 AM to 8 PM to take your contributions (food orders we request be in by 3 PM daily).
You don't have to order or make a tip to help us, another way is to share, comment, and like this post to get it to others who might be able to contribute.
The full backstory and program progress and details will come in our daily posts and emails.
#GarageGivesBack
The Garage Gives Back
We have BIG news for tomorrow for this coming week's shifts at the Epicurean Garage. We have just finalized a wonderful program suggested by a staff member and that will benefit some very deserving front line folks in our community. Stay tuned for a full announcement Wednesday morning April 15th.
We're not really sure how this got started...
Three weeks ago a friend of the Garage offered to help to encourage orders to keep our folks working and earning and paying their bills by stimulating orders with a donation of $10 per order from their family office to the Chester County Food Bank. Dan Frantz did a live broadcast from the Garage to stimulate orders and his 1000+ viewers delivered. You all raised $4,630 in two days.
The following week, a second local family stepped up and wanted to repeat the same program. When the first family heard, they added a stretch goal match. Word got to NBC10 Philadelphia and they put it on the news. You all raised over $10,000 in two days.
Then we heard from some of our suppliers. They were moved by the effort for the Food Bank. Clemens Food Group will now be donating to the Chester county food bank starting this week. They will be dropping off pallets of hams! Yes, folks PALLETS! Singer Equipment Company posted a press release to stimulate further support. All of this because of YOU!
Last weekend we wanted to show some love to a local startup family micro- farm. Our own stakeholders offered to pre-pay Snouts and Sprouts for a future order of their products for Garage menu specials. Hobo Ed's Railyard Roastery supplied coffee samples (you can find their beans and brew at Kimberton Whole Foods and Steel City Coffeehouse). You all jumped on and we'll be able to provide a check to Snouts and Sprouts for $5,000 for a deposit/pre-order for future delivery. These funds will give them needed cash-flow to help them to get through the crisis.
Along the way, one of our staff dubbed these efforts #GarageGivesBack. We like it. We think we'll keep it up!
Tomorrow, based on one of our server's ideas and with the support of a local donor, we will announce our most ambitious community support program yet.
We will tie together our local community, our hardworking crew, local businesses in need, and folks working on the front lines.
Thank you all for allowing the Garage to be one of your ways to give back to our community. 🙏❤️
Sunday, April 5
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We are gobsmacked... Help us to the finish line! | |
Saturday, April 4
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Saturday March 28, 2020
This weekend, we can help those who need it most!
If you’d like to know how right away, scroll past the preface to “So listen to this…"
As this week has progressed, we’ve seen some fatigue setting in. With families all home together, the house can get small and “cabin fever” can set in. The news and grapevines bring more information about ways to stay safe and healthy, some seems a bit urban legend-ish. We’re seeing the progress of cases and the real-world outcome of the virus in our area and others. Now more people “know someone” who’s been diagnosed…
All this can get overwhelming and for some just talking with someone can help ease anxiety and calm the nerves. Our order takers are in house from 10 AM to 3 PM and we’re just as happy to chat for a bit as take your order. If you’re feeling isolated and anxious, you can always give us a ring to check-in.
At the Garage, we keep positive - at a 6’ distance - as we continue to provide the essential service of making meals for our community. We ignore some of the more crazy ideas on health safety and focus on guidance from the CDC as our source for protocols. Our young staffers are pretty resilient and so the music plays to an empty room but they sing along and adapt dance moves to small groups 6’ apart in between taking orders and getting your food to you. They make us older folks smile. We’re proud of the sense of purpose they’ve found helping others. Which is why what comes next is really special for us this weekend…
So listen to this…
On Friday we were contacted by the managers of a family office for a local very wealthy family. They’ve been diners at the Garage and have had the chance to get a few of our $10 off coupons (we put one in every order during this time). They’re following our posts and emails and they’re moved by the practical real-world raison d'etre that the Garage crew has found in these trying times.
The offer came initially in the form of a donation to us to make meals for folks in need. However, we are not a non-profit or an aid organization so it was hard to figure out how to make that work.
In the end, we settled on what we think is a pretty cool idea!
For every order the Garage takes this weekend, this family will donate $10 to the Chester County Food Bank in the Garage’s name. The Chester County Food Bank IS a non profit aid organization who are getting food to people in need during the crisis and you can check them out here:
https://chestercountyfoodbank.org/
In order to make it a good deal for our diners and to stimulate more donations to the Food Bank, the Garage is offering 10% off every order this weekend.
So this weekend, your orders are a quadruple win. You are:
1. Keeping staff working and paid and paying their bills
2. Sending $10 per order to our County food bank to help them with their mission
3. Getting a discount for yourself to help keep your costs down
4. Keeping the Garage going so we can continue to offer food and Acme deliveries to our community
We’re excited about this and hope you are too!
As a reminder on procedures and protocols:
The Garage is taking orders by phone from 10 AM to 3 PM Wednesday through Sunday. Call (610) 615-5189 to order.
Meals are available for no-contact pickup and delivery from 4 PM to 8 PM in 30-minute windows.
If you are picking up, please stay in your car and flag down our staff out front or call the restaurant.
If you call and ask, we will attempt to accommodate all dietary requests.
We have an adapted menu linked to our Facebook and Web pages with family-style meals.
Staff is all working at minimum wage and sharing equally in the pool of your tips.
Delivery drivers are our own staff and are being reimbursed for fuel by our investors and stakeholders. We are delivering in an approximate 5-mile radius but will try to accommodate special requests.
We are delivering Acme orders to those who need this; please call to coordinate.
As always, if you know of a neighbor or person in our community who’s compromised, quarantined, or in need, let us know. We’ll do everything we can to help.
We can’t wait until we can see you all again.
We miss the smiles, the kids, the dancers on live music nights, the cheerful bar conversations…we miss YOU.
Stay healthy. Stay positive. Stay strong. #GarageFamily
The Garage Team
Tuesday March 24, 2020
We have a plan! (again)
Feedback from yesterday's update letter was awesome and helpful, thank you! Some of the ideas you sent are really cool. Keep your input and feedback coming! It is so awesome for our team to feel so connected to the neighbors and communities that we serve!
First a short story, then the update.
If you just want the pertinent details, scroll down to "The Plan" section...
Our Chef, Lee Krasley, comes by his craft honestly. His mom, Loretta, was the founder of a popular catering and gourmet shop in Phoenixville, called Creative Cooking. Maybe some of our followers remember her or have a story?
Like Lee's, Loretta's food and service was also a local favorite and many families celebrated baptisms, births, showers, nuptials, birthdays, and yes, mourned deaths of loved ones comforted by Loretta's fine fair and cheerful crews.
Yesterday at our leadership team meeting (held via a Zoom and Facetime combo), Lee noted that it was hard to get our heads around how quickly the world shifted underneath us. As we debated menus and service methods vs the full-service restaurant mode that the Garage is built for, one could surely say metaphorically "Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore!"
In the end, these pivoted approaches to ensure that our community has: safe access to food and groceries, that our staff can keep working and pay their bills, and to ensure our team is safe and healthy haven't been so difficult for Chef Krasley or his team. One has to ponder if the reason might be because he was just going back to his roots with his mom: amazing food delivered and served for events by a local caterer and crew who were much loved.
One could bet, in these most unusual of times, that Loretta is looking down on him right now rooting for him and his crew at the Garage.
The Plan (at least for this week)
Our plan focuses on two key elements:
1. How to keep to a minimum the number of staff working closely in the restaurant at any one time.
Our goal is less than 10 staff at any time (we have two HVAC "air zones" kitchen and dining room and so we are comfortable with up to 10 staff on each side of the wall but will focus on fewer if possible. The kitchen also has a "negative air pressure" so it is not recirculating and also has mostly hot surfaces where the CDC says the virus is not viable. We also have our maintenance guy looking at the status and upgrading of HVAC filters).
2. A menu which delivers fresh, safe, tasty food as you've come to expect at the Garage and also allows for simplification so that it can be produced and delivered more efficiently with fewer staff and staff interactions in close groups.
So what do you need to know?
The most important thing to know is that we will have specific time windows for you to order ahead and that we will not be taking orders during food production and delivery times.
To order: call the restaurant between 10 AM and 3 PM Wed - Sun when we will have four staff manning the phone lines and four staff handling order entry. At 3 PM this 8 person order taking and entry staff will exit the Garage, the front will be disinfected to prepare for production and delivery staff to come in, and phones will be for order status/update/issues only.
When you call, you will be offered a time slot for your curbside pickup or delivery in 30 min windows from 4 PM to 8 PM e.g. you can place an order for 7-7:30 for example. You can also order for future days and time windows any time this week.
We will have limited "slots" available for each 30-minute order window to allow us: fewer staff in the kitchen for production, fewer staff in the front packing and delivering to curbside/delivery, and we also hope to make the timing more reliable and predictable. If you want a peak time slot, get your orders in early.
This approach will also allow us to attempt to accommodate dietary restrictions as our Chef and kitchen staff will have time to adjust menu items for specific needs. We can't promise we can always accommodate but we promise that we will always try. Please let the phone person know what you need and we will get back to you.
The menu is changing.
Please check out our updated menu as linked to our Facebook page and website which should be up sometime today, Tuesday 3/24/20.
This menu has two sections: a more compact a la cart section of Garage favorites and a family dinner section. There are some new things too. This will be the menu for this week and then we'll revisit for next week. We welcome feedback and input for next week's updates.
A few operational bits:
We are using our own servers and front of house staff for delivery. As a result and because of the operational complexities, we are discontinuing Door Dash during the Covid-19 period. If you live within approximately 5 miles, please consider using our delivery. This will help us to keep folks working and paid, it's a safe way to get your food to you, and you don't need to wait if your order is not ready upon your arrival.
For curbside pickup, please stay in your car and call us or flag down our person outside. We can't allow diners in the restaurant and we don't want you to be cold waiting on the sidewalk and possibly coming in close contact with other folks waiting.
Our curbside and deliveries will continue to be no-contact.
We are continuing and improving on all recommended health procedures. Staff will continue to wear gloves and face coverings and our heightened cleaning and disinfecting protocols remain in place.
We will continue to provide delivery of your grocery orders from Acme. Let us know when you call-in your food order so we can coordinate with your online ACME pickup order.
Finally, if you know of a neighbor who is compromised, quarantined, in financial or medical distress and who needs help, please let us know. We'll try to help. We're not built to be an aid organization per se but in these times we all need to help one another and we will always do whatever we can do.
Stay healthy, stay positive...
The Garage Team
Saturday March 21, 2020
On this Saturday morning after a very busy no-contact take-out and delivery Friday night, we have some things to report and are considering carefully what to do with the new information that's emerging seemingly by the minute. But first....
We want to say: WE ARE SO PROUD OF OUR TEAM.
They are voluntarily following tight social distancing, check-in, personal health monitoring, and working protocols - many of which they participated in developing and continue to improve as we go.
They have a strong sense of purpose in serving our neighbors at this difficult time and it's palpable. When a commercial enterprise can enable a mostly young staff to "rise up" in trying times, it's truly the best version of itself.
With the restaurant logistics channel for food mostly shuttered (this represents half of the food Americans access) and with many neighbors wanting no-contact grocery delivery - our team has stepped up to provide both ongoing delivery of our expanded menu with family dinners AND delivery of our neighboring Acme's order-ahead-and-pick-up for groceries. Bravo kids. Bravo.
Now to the serious stuff....
Our leadership team met last night, as we have every night since this began, to discuss next steps. Other local restaurants serving our 4-mile circle of neighborhoods have decided it's too risky to continue. They're smart, very smart people, and we respect them a lot. So now we are faced with the decision to keep going, trying to manage the risk as best we can (it seems less "manageable" with every news cycle), or to shut down...
In last night's post shift debrief, our staff passionately pleaded for us to go on. In the smaller leadership team meeting afterwards, things were more subdued and the safety of: our neighbors we serve, our team, and our at-risk heart transplant recipient owner and Chef were front and center.
What was decided is, for now, day to day, we're going to keep going. We believe that, based on discussions with advisors who are medical and health and safety professionals, that our protocols vs the risk vs the community's need for access to take-out and delivery food and groceries is an acceptable risk. We are not in this for the money, what's driving us is a sense that we are providing an essential service for those sheltering in-place or self-quarantining and we are doing so in the safest way possible.
We are, however, reducing our hours for today and tomorrow to 3PM - 8PM in order to reduce everyone's exposure window.
We can be reached at 610-615-5189, by PM on Facebook, or by email via our website www.epicureangarage.com. We are also attempting to monitor all comments on posts.
We will continue with our staff protocols and so you will see all staff staying as well back as they can in no-contact delivery of food and they will be wearing gloves and a face covering. We will also continue our heightened disinfecting and cleaning protocols in our physical plant.
We will re-asses this evening and then we will be closed on Monday and Tuesday as usual and then see where we are, going into next Wednesday.
Tonight - we will still have our masked friends from Locust Lane providing cold freshly brewed craft beer by the can. Available for take-out only as planned. Yum.
We hope that our neighbors agree and we encourage your feedback. If our neighbors feel that this service is unnecessary or too risky to continue, please say so as we take all the input we get into account every night when we decide what will happen the following day.
And please know, that no matter what happens, no matter what we have to do - we will be taking care of our staff financially and in every other way we need to. We are an extended family at the Garage and we will survive these trying times together.
Neighbors: stay safe, stay healthy, and please let us know how we can help you.
For a full rundown of what we are doing during this crisis, we have a dedicated page on our website HERE.
In addition to our full menu (we may run out of certain items due to supply chain), we are offering a Family Menu. This is the current version and we will update as needed on our website menu page HERE.
Tuesday March 17, 2020
As we all settle into this "new normal", our leadership team has spent our usual Mon & Tue off planning and preparing for tomorrow when we will reopen for the week - just in a different mode. We’re also here if someone at-risk or self quarantining needs something from our Acme; order online & we’ll deliver with your food. Give us a call: 610-615-5189. |