I am not alone in feeling like the past week has been insane. As the news outlets closer to home pick up and amplify their Coronavirus coverage, we have all been inundated with content. It’s been hard to sift through all of it and formulate a game plan, both on an individual, personal level and for the business. We have been taking it one day at a time so far and focusing on cleaning & sanitizing and spreading the love/mitigating anxiety. Now we are at a critical inflection point so we need a different plan. After MUCH deliberation, here’s my best game plan:

Effective Monday 3/16, we’re switching to 100% online ordering, packaged for take-out and brought to you for curbside pickup.

(BTW – we are fully expecting forced closures from the state at some point. Until then, we are here for you. We all have to eat.)

Here are the basics on how we plan on doing this

I want to tackle this first before I lose my readers’ interest, and then I’m happy to expound on reasoning, feelings, etc.

• Our online store is up and running, and if you’ve ordered with us before, you know the drill! (If you haven’t ordered before, good news: there is an automatic 10% discount off your first online order!)

• The front door will be locked :-( Because when we put up signs on the door, very few people read them. Locking the door usually gets y’all to read whatever sign we post. This one will have instructions for online ordering.

• There is a 15-minute expected wait for order fulfillment. We reserve the right to adjust as needed to set realistic expectations. Please plan accordingly.

• If we run out of a particular item/flavor, we may reach out via text to coordinate a substitution. Please be flexible if we suggest a substitution.

• For the moment, we will hand off orders at our front door. Please plan on walking up to our front door only once you have received notification that your order is ready. We are trying to be mindful of people’s desire to maintain some distance – y’all queueing up to wait outside defeats the point.

• Please consider tipping on your order! Every business owner I have talked to is worried about their employees’ livelihoods. This is a great way to show support for the people that make the magic happen, if you can afford it. I want to stress this so you do not get the wrong impression: Everyone will receive the same level of service regardless of how much/if they tip. If you are looking to send good energy into the world and can spare a buck or two, this is a good time.

• If you wanted to eat & chill with us but can’t anymore – consider the lawn across the street! Ain’t no better time for a picnic than the (almost) spring. Bring a blanket and a book or tunes, space yourselves out, and try to decompress from all this anxiety. We need some chillness. Check our Spotify profile for our tunes!

• Lastly: Let’s have some fun with it! We’ll be including random freebie cards with every order. Just so you have something to look forward to when we resume normal service. (We will! We will come back. I promise.)

Other businesses are closing down completely. Why aren’t we?

The short answer is, this is uncharted territory for all of us as a society! Everyone is reacting to this differently. I wanted to keep Rebelle going on-site (with all the obsessive sanitizing!) for those of us who really need human connection and distraction from an anxious world. I rationalized that if we are already going out for food, what is the harm in sitting for a few peaceful minutes to enjoy our breakfast? But after today, I sense peace is hard to find among others right now. Isolation is what brings people the peace they need. So here we are.

For some restaurants, opening in a limited capacity is not realistic. As a mostly take-out business, we can do 100% take-out with minor tweaks. I am down to try! I want to try before I opt to close down temporarily.

What happens if we decide/are forced to cease operations temporarily?

I have spent hours talking to other business owners on how they are handling this situation. There is very little guidance from our government, it feels. All the advice I have received is a bit different, but here is what we all share: concern for our team members. Hourly employees are not prepared for financial speed bumps and this is a universal reality of being an hourly employee. The state is allowing and expediting unemployment benefits for employees whose workplaces are under temporary shutdown. But unemployment is not enough to live on, and a bunch of people are about to claim their benefits. Maybe the system gets overwhelmed, idk. I feel a strong sense of responsibility over my team’s livelihood and I feel uncomfortable letting them go without a plan that feels solid.

Time to break the Rebelle piggy bank to help our team! In the event of a temporary closure, we are committing a full payout of accrued paid sick leave and paid time off for all employees who choose to cash it out as a supplement to unemployment. We are fortunate to have cash flow that allows for this type of employee goodwill. Thank you for supporting us to this point.

What we are doing to run as safely as possible

• Our sickness & time off policy has its time to shine right now! Part-time and full-time employees at Rebelle enjoy some form of paid sick leave and we are always happy to honor it. Employee health is monitored and we do our best to make calling out sick comfortable and stigma-free for the team.

• We continue to clean obsessively. We have plenty of sanitizing solution, bleach, various antibacterial detergents and hand soap. Plenty of you have expressed your gratitude for how clean we always keep the joint. We are prepared to clean all the things.

• We are keeping the good vibes going! Call it whatever you want to – I refuse to spiral into despair. I commit to you that, whatever I can do to brighten your day and put a smile on your face, I will do. I got into this business because I believe in feeding people and their spirits. We all still have to eat. Let’s try to have a little bit of fun while we can.

• We are reassessing daily. Look, if we run out of good vibes, if the team is anxious and stressed, if all hell breaks loose or the government orders a shutdown, then we will hang up our aprons for some period of time TBD. We will come back. I promise.