When Jeremy Hassman stepped into his general manager position at the Kalona Brewing Company a month ago, he couldn’t have anticipated the looming trouble for restaurants across the nation.

As COVID-19 brought industrywide stress and financial trouble, restaurants have fought to keep their doors open without jeopardizing the health of their employees and customers.

Despite the hardship, Kalona Brewing Company rolled with the punches.

“The team here immediately just kind of started adapting, I’ve been very impressed on what I walked into and the system that was set up,” Hassman said.

The company has, since locking doors on March 19, implemented a new sanitization routine, increased its social media presence, and converted its vans to offer food delivery services for the first time ever.

Across Washington County, restaurants have followed a similar trend.

Closures initially sowed uncertainty, as restaurants scrambled to pay basic upkeep costs like refrigeration and rent. Soon, however, staff, technology, and communities rose to the challenge.

Most restaurateurs are trying to stay optimistic.

In Riverside, La Chiva Loka happily resumed margarita sales following Gov. Kim Reynold’s temporary allowance of carry-out alcohol in late March. They’ve capitalized on the in-house closure to touch up their interior.

While the Mexican restaurant had takeout options already in place, new demands strained the system.

“We had everything pretty well set up, luckily we have a very large warmer, so we can keep everything together, so we can keep everything nice and fresh for the customer, so they can come in and get it still just like it was here in person,” manager Karen Cabrera said in a phone interview.

Like other restaurants, La Chiva Loka was stressed initially by a lack of takeout supplies, such as to-go containers. While that supply has been filled for now, rural areas like Washington County find it harder to secure supplies from a volatile network than in higher population areas like Des Moines and Iowa City.

Another problem for small-town restaurants is keeping employees on payroll. Area restaurants have cut staff temporarily to as few as two to seven employees. While most of these cuts were temporary, businesses worry about paying staff after a return to normal, especially if the new normal allows them only to operate at half capacity.

Although government aid is possible for these small businesses, wait times and red tape have proven difficult to navigate. While all but one business interviewed applied for aid from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, none have received a response yet. Managers said they couldn’t afford to assure pay to their employees without the federal loans.

The exception to this rule is Second Street Sweets. The small business in Wellman has only five tables and two staff members, Marti Seastrom and her husband, Todd. Seastrom doesn’t have a menu, customers typically order what they want, and she makes it.

To account for short supplies, however, the store is selling only its daily specials.

Despite the drop in variety, Seastrom said her lunch sales are down by only 4%, though she expects to feel the effects of this year’s lack of birthday and grad parties later on. The eatery had to delay plans to add breakfast service this year over concerns of the state-mandated regulations.

“We’ve just been following the rules and hope that everyone else is, too, and can’t wait to get to the end of all this, but I don’t see it coming anytime soon and people still have to eat,” Seastrom said.

Her husband, Todd, is the one who runs orders out to cars, dropping them on unoccupied passenger seats to maintain distance with the customers.

“When I drop them in the passenger seats, a lot of them say, ‘Thank you for staying open,’” he said.

Although adaptation has been the norm, restaurants and their staffs are eager to return to normalcy.

Jerry Murphy of Murphy’s Bar and Grill in Riverside said the situation was stressful both mentally and financially as sustainability becomes a concern.

“We’re just all looking forward to this being over,” he said.