Restaurant Leaping Pandemic Hurdles for Launch

Posted on May 11, 2020

Being a family-owned restaurant can have its advantages in trying times.

For example, say you signed a seven-year lease on a West Franklin Street space in the most expensive part of Chapel Hill — just two months before the state shut down dining rooms and asked potential customers to stay home to cope with a pandemic.

If you have to open anyway to bring in even a little revenue from only takeout and delivery orders, just like every other eatery in the state, at least you can recruit your wife and son and other relatives to staff the operation and pay them with meals.

Jose Ramirez, co-owner of Que Chula Tacos in 140 West Plaza, said making the call to open against daunting odds was one of the hardest decisions he has ever made.

“We didn’t qualify for any federal aid because we hadn’t opened by Feb. 15,” Ramirez said. “We’re taking money out of our own pockets to see if it will get better.”

He had applied for a liquor license, but the work-from-home order has slowed the process considerably, including the required fingerprinting. So he can’t serve his meals with a beer or margarita.

He already had printed the menus with prices and put them on his website when his meat provider closed, and he scrambled to find a new supplier but had to pay a premium for steak. So he’ll take a loss on his beef dishes.

“No one will buy fajitas for $30,” he said.

He shifted his advertising budget to cover more pressing costs. He is relying on Facebook, Instagram and word-of-mouth to tell people his business is open.

On the plus side, the restaurant opens onto a plaza with benches, and the town has waived parking fees for the underground lot beneath his store. Customers can park for free to pick up their meals and stay as long as they want sitting outside to eat.

Que Chula got some early signs it might beat the long odds in the spot that was the former home of Lime Fresh Mexican Grill and, most recently, Hops Burger Bar. Ramirez said that on the first day of business — shortly before what would have been Commencement weekend, when the town normally is swarming with graduates and their proud families and friends — he opened for lunch and still served 30 orders.

“Hopefully,” Ramirez said, “a lot of people will try us and like what they get.”

140 W. Franklin St., Suite 110 | quechulatacos.com

— Nancy E. Oates