Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen navigates the COVID-19 pandemic

Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen chef-owner Zak Dolezal has faced many difficult choices since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Going from indoor dining to carryout was one change he never envisioned.

McHenry County restaurants have been barred from indoor dining since Oct. 31. While some owners continued serving indoors, Duke’s cleared its tables and just serves by carryout.

Dolezal, chef-owner of Duke’s since 2008, continues to receive support from his customers, but the pandemic and restrictions led to a significant loss of staff and revenue.

Dolezal recently spoke with Shaw Local about the challenges he faced as an owner, the financial and personnel fallout, what he looks forward to the most when the pandemic is finally over and more.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What went into your decision to close indoor dining?

Dolezal: We decided to close indoor dining to protect the health of our staff and guests. It wasn’t an easy decision, but we feel it was the right one to make. We have multiple calls daily asking whether or not indoor is open. Some customers have suggested we defy the governor’s order. When we see other businesses staying open without consequences, our decision gets challenged further, especially with winter coming and watching our curbside sales drop.

What do you think about restaurants that decided to continue indoor dining?

Dolezal: Every business is responsible for its own choices. In a perfect world, we’d all be in this together, but we understand some businesses have chosen to remain open for their own reasons. While very frustrating to see that the playing field isn’t a fair one, every business has its own set of circumstances. Some might be forced to remain open because they feel they have no choice. When there’s little to no help from the federal government, many probably feel they have their backs against the wall.

How has your staff been affected?

Dolezal: We went from having 50-plus employees to five. Before the second shutdown, we would have 10-plus people working daily, and now that’s down to three. I can’t begin to thank my staff for their hard work and endurance with more work and less income. While I’ve struggled, wondering if my dreams and passions will be crushed, they’ve stepped up and picked up the slack without being asked. They have kept me positive and excited to take on the challenges.

We’re now 10 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. How has your business been affected financially?

Dolezal: The reality is we’ve used up all of our money that we had planned to use on the constant improvements that a busy restaurant needs in order to continue to operate. We’ve taken grants and government loans and used them as effectively as possible, but it isn’t enough. We scrape what little income we get each week and work on new promotions in order to drive sales. We get creative with what we have. When the restrictions get lifted, we’ll be ready and eager to serve.

What have been the challenges transitioning from dine-in to carryout?

Dolezal: As a chef serving fresh food, this normally would be a nightmare. But once again we are stepping up to the challenge of serving sustainable products that will last inside a compostable container. Being a green restaurant, we wanted to be sure that, even during these trying times, we consider the environment. We have even sourced containers for recycling vinyl gloves. It’s a huge expense, but watching so many gloves enter the waste stream wasn’t something we could just look away from.

Are you still seeing support from customers?

Dolezal: We have received amazing support. They send us uplifting messages on social media, and many order carryout multiple times a week. They’ve been very supportive through each hard decision we’ve been forced to make. Our customers have been our life blood and inspiration that have kept us going. While they offer grace and forgiveness, we never take that for granted.

We know that we need to be constantly reinventing and staying fresh regardless of circumstances. COVID-19 cannot be an excuse for poor service or poor quality. We welcome constructive feedback, and we are focused on being a positive force while remaining true to our philosophy to serving high-quality, responsibly sourced products in a friendly and gracious way.

What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced?

Dolezal: During the first closure, we noticed that our fries were not traveling well. No complaints from guests, but I saw it might be an issue so we switched to a conventional fry that would last in a compostable box. Customers spoke up and were surprised we would even offer something like that. Needless to say, I was embarrassed and we immediately switched back to our fresh fries.

How have you tried to generate sales in the absence of indoor dining?

Dolezal: Every Friday we begin to discuss what we will be doing the next week to drive more sales and decrease costs. There’s no room for large investment risks. Our creativity has very restrictive parameters, which has only made our staff more creative with less. Normal, easy promotions, such as coupons and discounts, won’t work, as we need every penny in order to support our staff, building and business.

You partnered with area restaurants, including 1776, Cafe Olympic, Fork it Foods, for a Thanksgiving community dinner. How did that come together?

Dolezal: (It was) a success on so many levels. We partnered with so many great businesses and individuals in order to pull off something fairly extravagant in a very short period of time. This event created new partnerships, new friends, and a cozy connection with a community of businesses, farms and guests.

I connected with many other business owners that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. For them to commit to something so big without knowing if they would make it through the next few weeks was heartwarming and it showed the dedication to offering something special to our amazing community.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is typically a big day for restaurants and bars. What was the impact of not having “Black(out) Wednesday”?

Dolezal: Mostly like every other holiday. St. Patrick’s Day may have been the hardest holiday to miss. I remember my parents pulling me and my sister out of school to work at Durty Nellie’s each St. Patrick’s when I was in grade school in order to help out the family businesses with our busiest day of the year.

“Black(out) Wednesday” brought similar emotions while reflecting on past years. It brought back so many memories of celebrations with my crew and their friends and family. That joy and togetherness has been shattered by the pandemic, just like so many other gatherings of friends and family. Truly heartbreaking, but we still worked this year and we are blessed to even have a business still standing.

What has been the hardest part for you during the pandemic?

Dolezal: Separating our best team ever was gut wrenching. Team members and friends being pulled apart hurt me more than anything we’ve had to deal with. Our employees create a home for not only our guests, but each other as well. Employees did a great job of keeping us together for a long time, but as this has stretched out into almost a year, we’ve all had to make changes and adjustments realizing the good old days aren’t coming back. At least not in the same way.

What are you looking forward to the most when things go back to (relatively) normal?

Dolezal: I’m honestly looking forward to the mayhem of struggling to catch with the huge influx of business and rebuilding.