KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Businesses across the Kansas City metro are doing what they can to stay afloat amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
On a typical day during the lunch rush at Grinders in Kansas City, Missouri, it would be hard for customers to find a place to sit. On Wednesday, the restaurant was empty as the restaurant had to close its dining area for the second day.
"It sucks, I'm not going to beat around the bush. This is the worst that I've seen the industry," said Stretch, the owner of Grinders.
As of Wednesday, the only business Grinders had was the fulfillment of carryout and delivery orders.
"You try and forecast on previous weeks' sales, there's been nothing like this, ever. I mean it's chaos," Stretch said.
A block away from Grinders, the Mean Mule Distilling Co. shut down completely, relying only on the sale of products to get the business through this time.
"You know, you have your standard things that you prepare for, a market crash, a recession, that kind of stuff, because that kind of stuff we've been through, but something like this we haven't been through in a hundred years so, there's no rule book on it. There's no playbook on this," said Jeff Evans, the founder of Mean Mule Distilling Co.
As consumers wonder what their favorite local spots are doing during this time of uncertainty, they can look to Curbside KC for help. Danielle Lehman created the website that lists which restaurants are fulfilling orders via delivery or carryout.
"It's really become a really valuable tool, I think, for the restaurant community to be able to communicate with consumers what they're currently offering up to date," Lehman said.
Lehman told 41 Action News it took her two hours on Saturday morning to create the website that's now gone viral.
"I put maybe 25 restaurants on there, sent it out to some people," Lehman said. "It went viral really quickly. There's a link for restaurants to be able to add themselves to it, and so far I've received over 800 submissions since Saturday."
In one location, people can see which restaurants are open and how to support them. As of Wednesday, a number of other cities around the country were looking to replicate Curbside KC.
"Right now, there's a woman in the East Bay in the San Francisco area setting one up, there's someone in Miami, there's someone in St. Louis, so I'm happy to continue to help other people who are passionate about the food community and their cities replicate it," Lehman said.
