SUNDRE — A local chef and owner of the former Twisted Pantry bistro who just managed to survive the first lockdown decided the time had come to throw in the towel.
“The restaurant industry hurts, and the bar industry hurts, but catering is just absolutely getting slaughtered out there,” Derek Ralph said during an interview with The Albertan.
“We have no Christmas parties, we have no weddings, not even funerals anymore,” said Ralph.
Although he opened the brick and mortar bistro just last year, the professional chef had previously been catering for several years.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, he said they were able to adapt to the shutdown and health protocols, and continued providing services such as curb-side delivery as well as frozen, ready-made meals for pickup.
“We made it through that,” he said.
Throughout the summer months, although there was a significant drop compared with last year, business remained relatively consistent courtesy of tourist traffic, he said.
“We were down probably about 35-40 per cent compared to the September and October before,” he said.
Then, the number of confirmed cases started increasing.
He described the process of applying for business assistance programs through the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the provincial government as “kind of a battle royale.”
That struggle, he explained, stemmed largely from the fact that while Twisted Pantry Catering Events had technically been in business for four years, to become a restaurant, Ralph required liquor licensing that ended up rebranding the name of his company to include the addition of “limited.”
“When you change all of that information on your banking and all that kind of stuff, it’s considered a new business. So, even though we’ve been in business for four years, dealing with the CRA and the government, they considered us a first-year business,” he said.
“We’ve applied for anything we possibly qualified for. But because we’re considered a first-year business, we’re kind of in a cue in a waiting line.”
In the absence of receiving government assistance, Ralph said they were forced to weigh the risk of digging even deeper into their savings to try and get through the winter, or completely reevaluate.
“Sometimes, to be successful, you got to step back and look at the big picture.”
Further complicating matters was that while the bistro generated some revenue, the bulk of their earnings — to the tune of 65 per cent — was from catering, he said.
“When you remove all catering, and the bistro slows down, you’re losing everything,” he said.
“We had to raise our pricing for catering for private parties and all that kind of stuff, and we decided to close the bistro, and really concentrate on just catering and moving forward and hopefully rebound back.”
Although Ralph intends to continue offering the catering service, the restrictions and health protocols represent substantial logistical hurdles and subsequently increased operational costs.
For example, catering to a group of 45 people will require about half a dozen servers just to individually dish out each menu item to patrons in an effort to avoid the potential for cross contamination, he said.
So while catering for a larger wedding can be profitable, when that number drops to only 15, the margin for profit disappears, he said.
“With COVID, yes I can own a catering company, and yes I can be profitable. But it’s extremely hard to be successful or even profitable for catering for 15 to 20 people instead of 60 to 80.”
Ralph spoke with The Albertan prior to the recently enhanced pandemic measures that have restricted social gatherings for events like funerals and weddings to only 10 people.
“If they were to lock us down a second time, there’s absolutely no way that we would be able to succeed here at all,” he said.
The cost of labour was not the only financial challenge to overcome. Distributors to small businesses and restaurants also significantly increased requirements for orders, he said.
“Instead of (distributors) coming out to Sundre and delivering for like a minimum of $800 per order, they’ve upped that to $1,500 per order.”
That prompted him to turn to the local retail option at the grocery store.
“IGA, in town here, was fantastic. Our goal was to be 100 per cent local, and have all of our meats that we could possibly get local — we’ve done that, and IGA was a huge, huge help with that,” he said.
However, while the chef expressed profound gratitude for everything Marty Mennear was able to offer through the grocery store, IGA is a corporate entity and even though Ralph was able to get discounts, costs were still higher than going directly through a distributor.
The combination of all these factors, among others, led him to the inevitable conclusion.
“We were absolutely just forced to close. Otherwise, I’d just lose everything I have,” he said.
“I’m walking away with at least a little tiny bit of my shirt left. But other than that, my entire shirt’s shredded.”
Ever the optimist, Ralph strives to maintain a positive outlook and still holds onto his dream of eventually re-opening a restaurant in Sundre. But he called the rents being charged for main commercial restaurant spaces in town “extremely frustrating."
“The average Joe can’t even afford the rent…I could rent places in Calgary cheaper,” he said.
“But there’s that rent subsidy out there for landlords that have an empty building — might be more profitable for them, than having a tenant in there.”
Regardless, Ralph said he remains open-minded and has zero intention of going anywhere.
Meanwhile, he was able to find a job at Candre.
“It’s my first time getting a paycheque in five years,” he said with a chuckle, adding that income will not only ensure he can stay in the community, but also helps keep alive his hopes to rebound in the future.
As a parting thought, he encouraged other struggling entrepreneurs to lean on one another for support.
“Every single small business owner out there right now that is going through extreme mental health issues, you need to sit with your spouse or with your coworkers, or with whoever’s close to you, and really lay out what the worst-case scenario is, to what the best-case scenario is,” he said.
As the pandemic endures, people simply cannot go to bed stressed out and wake up stressed out every single day, he said.
“That takes a huge toll on anybody,” he said.
“Small business owners in Sundre are here to help each other…they all care about each other. If you’re a small business owner out there and you’re struggling, just lean on somebody. This community’s awesome.”
