The island’s gourmet markets were in the right place at the right time when the pandemic shutdowns hit last year, uniquely positioned to fill a sudden hunger for high-quality takeout food.
Business boomed during 2020, and market owners and managers say demand has stayed strong through the 2021 winter season.
Longtime restaurateur and deli owner John Marx said he and co-owner Kelly Stubbs had a record year of sales at the Polo Deli. “We were in the right business with all the pandemic things going on,” he added, noting that Polo sold a “boatload” of wine this time last year as residents braced amidst rumblings of a second lockdown.
Marx’s Cardinal Drive deli location has done a booming business in part due to technology that enables fast, efficient curbside service, he said.
“We have these little computers that go out into the parking area where we can ring up the orders. They do just about everything except make sandwiches.”
Ryder’s Gourmet Market had the distinction of actually opening for business during the pandemic, and the timing turned out to be fortuitous.
“Unfortunately, for others, when they had to shut down or be limited by the fact that they were serving inside, our business plan worked perfectly,” said owner Tom Ryder, who opened the gourmet market with his son Rob last September in the former Super Stop convenience store on Cardinal.
“We were incredibly fortunate that the plan that we had a long time ago [for takeout food and outdoor seating] happened to be implemented right in the middle of a pandemic. That helped us more than hurt us,” said Ryder.
Even though the market shut down for 10 days at one point when a staff member contracted COVID, Ryder characterized his first year in business as “exceptional.”
Now, he and his son are turning their attention to navigating summer in Vero Beach, a time when business typically slows for island restaurants and retailers after snowbirds head north.
“Right now, Sunday mornings are still completely packed. Lunch has been good from the start, and we’re thrilled with the way our Dinner Tonight take-home dinners have sold,” said Ryder.
But he is beginning to see a decrease in customers in contrast to March and April, when he contemplated limiting the number of people allowed inside to avoid a crush of shoppers unable to socially distance.
Ever the innovator, Ryder said he and his son have some ideas about ways to keep busy during the summer. A monthly light food and wine encounter dubbed “Twilight at Ryder’s” that is set to debut this week is already sold out.
At Chelsea’s Gourmet, a long-established, family-run cafe, market and restaurant, general manager Diana Bordoli said that they saw a surge in online orders during the pandemic.
“We’re trying to be flexible and dynamic, supportive of the community, our staff and the world. Our goal is to serve health and happiness,” said Bordoli, noting the importance of offering a variety of ordering options – outside, inside, online, using a QR code or at the take-out window.
To compensate for the loss of indoor seating early in the pandemic, Chelsea’s expanded its outdoor seating area, something Bordoli hopes to continue. “People really enjoyed sitting outside,” she said, adding that they’ve just recently reopened indoor seating.
“We’ve had a really strong season. It’s hard for us to read about restaurants in other parts of this country and in other countries that are shutting down when our places are so packed that we can’t even take everybody who calls,” said Bordoli, noting that sales are on par with what they saw in 2019.
“We’ve had a steady clientele all season. Usually, by now, you see it thinning out, but we still have people coming in the door,” she added. “Who knows what this summer is going to be like? People in this country are excited to get out again, so I feel like there’s going to be a lot of motion all summer.”
Mario Amelio, co-owner of Johnny D’s on A1A, said his biggest problem during the pandemic was filling the flood of orders that came in.
“We were very fortunate that we already had a very strong to-go business when the pandemic hit,” he said. “So, it was a smooth transition to just do more of that. A lot of restaurants weren’t really set up to do to-go, and they had to make a full transition. But we already had that in the bag.”
Amelio said sales are still up, with an increase in the number of people wanting to dine in.
The problem he faces now is finding sufficient staff to prepare and serve meals and getting all the products he needs, as pandemic-related shortages persist in the supply chain.
“I’m just thankful for the employees I do have who have stayed with me through all of this,” Amelio added.
The Village Beach Market – which has a full-featured deli selling sandwiches, prepared entrees and all kinds of premium deli food – was closed during much of the pandemic while the island’s only grocery store underwent previously-planned renovations.
Not wanting to leave patrons high and dry, COO Jason Keen offered delivery from a warehouse location and parked a food truck in the store’s parking lot.
“To assist our customers and give our employees an opportunity to continue to work while the store was being renovated, we opened the food truck,” Keen said, noting that the truck stayed busy with people not ready to dine out before the COVID vaccine became readily available.
Now, “people are starting to return to pre-pandemic behavior as far as coming into the store,” Keen said. “We are seeing more of that each and every day. We still deliver some to people at their homes because they don’t want to get back out just yet. But, by and large, most people are ready to get back to normal.”
He also noted that customers are splurging in their food choices, routinely buying items they typically would have purchased only for special occasions, perhaps to celebrate a return to normalcy.
While Keen noted that seasonal residents have started to head back north, he’s expecting a stronger summer than in non-COVID years past with the influx of people leaving the Northeast and West Coast to move to Vero Beach and a busier-than-usual tourist season.