Nook & Kranny Kafe Shares Struggle Of Small Restaurants

PHOENIXVILLE, PA — The Nook & Kranny Kafe is feeling the pandemic punch like many Main Street mom-and-pop businesses that barely weathered the first pandemic wave and shutdown and were just beginning to recover.

Thursday's announced prohibition on indoor dining for at least three weeks was like a second punch, leaving the Nook's owners with little hope and dwindling determination.

"I'm not sure how our business is going to make it," said co-owner Christina Swartzentruber. "We barely got through the first time with the grant money. We wake up every morning saying we need to keep fighting, but we're tired, we're terrified, and we're broken."

On Feb. 13, 2012, Swartzentruber and her dad, Ray, opened the Nook & Kranny Kafe at 847 Valley Forge Road in Phoenixville. She was 19 and felt both excited and afraid at the same time.

"I had a lot of learning ahead of me," she said told Patch. "I stuck my neck out so I could work for myself."

The Nook & Kranny co-owner described how difficult it was starting a business eight years ago, then staying afloat in recent months, as Pennsylvania went into a springtime lockdown that squeezed many businesses and only ended June 30.

Christina's mom, Cheryl, joined the effort not long after the first opening, and the team launched the Eagleville Nook & Kranny Kafe in August 2016. The businesses have been making it but hit a hard bump in the road this year.

"The first shutdown was brutal on us as a business and as a family," Swartzentruber said.

She said in the first few weeks of Pennsylvania's pandemic shutdown the family watched their growing businesses crumble under the mandated safety measures, doing business that added up to "around 10 percent of what we would consider normal."

"As time went on, our customers really came around and supported us by ordering takeout and purchasing gift cards to be used at a later time," she said.

But, it wasn't really enough. "We had to close Eagleville for the first two months in order to keep afloat," said Swartzentruber. "Thankfully, we did get the PPP loan and were able to reopen our Eagleville location. Honestly, if we did not get that grant money, we probably would have had to close one of our restaurants."

"In the beginning, we had to lay off all of our employees until numbers started to go up," she said. "When we were able to open for dine-in again, our numbers grew throughout the summer. We were getting support from both dine-in and takeout customers with a smattering of curbside here and there."

She said that by mid-September, things started to look up. "We actually had a few weeks where sales were at 100 percent."

"Unfortunately, that did not last very long," she added, responding to Thursday's news that Gov. Tom Wolf had called for three weeks of coronavirus mitigation measures, including closing indoor dining and gyms, limiting gatherings and suspending youth sports. For the Nook & Kranny, the worst part is the governor's closure of indoor dining starting Saturday, through Jan. 4.

With more people working from home in the pandemic, the Nook's breakfast business has especially suffered. "We serve breakfast and lunch — and, honestly, breakfast takeout just isn't the same. Most of our customers have been absolutely amazing during this trying time, and I know we would not be where we are today without them."

"Numbers have dropped drastically in the past few weeks, and we're feeling it."

The Nook & Kranny Kafe is in a very tight spot right now, along with many others. Swartzentruber wonders how they will keep paying their vendors if no one is buying at the counter.

"Our providers need money, so they're hounding us, and we just don't have the money to pay them and our rent, our mortgages, our food bills," she said. "It's a chain reaction."

"This dine-in shutdown does not just affect us, it affects everyone we work with."

Swartzentruber said the family has decided not to close Eagleville this time around, but said if sales aren't good, store hours might be cut. They might close on Mondays and Tuesdays at both places instead of being open seven days a week.

"If we don't make enough money to pay our employees, we will have to do the work ourselves — and working every day would burn us out quickly," she said.

"Our staff is as disgruntled as we are. We just lost one of our main cooks because he needed to make more money, which we completely understand," Swartzentruber added. "Our servers are struggling because a lot of people do not tip on takeout orders and we cannot afford to pay them more than their normal hourly wage."

She said for a small business like the Nook & Kranny, working with third-party delivery "has proven fruitless." She explained most take a percentage so high it amounts to the restaurant's entire profit on food.

"We tried delivery, but it never caught on, and it costs a pretty penny to keep a delivery driver hanging around all day," Swartzentruber said.

"With the holidays coming around, we have accepted as a family that gifts just aren't going to happen this year except for what little we can buy for the children in the family," she said.

The Nook's community events have gone away, too. "We run Breakfast with Santa every year, and this is the first time we won't be able to do it. Our customers look forward to it, and so do we. It always helps put me in the holiday spirit."

As companies host employee holiday parties, the Nook has always done well. But this year, those catering gigs didn't happen. "We cater on the side as well, and we do not have any Christmas parties this year. That's also a huge hit financially."

"We have no idea what is going to happen to us. We have family willing to help financially, but we would have to swallow our pride and be a burden on our family," said Swartzentruber.

"There is no end in sight when it comes to anything; the last time they gave us a time period, it went from two weeks to three months. I am worried about our mental stability at this point," she said.

Swartzentruber is a bit politically frustrated at how restaurant dining has been shut down "while huge corporations can allow 500 people in their stores."

"We have seen hundreds and hundreds of people for the past nine months, and as far as I know none of our customers, or employees, have been infected with the virus."

Swartzentruber was hopeful when she heard Chester County had just approved $10 million in new Main Street program grants for small businesses impacted by COVID-19. She was going to look up the information, she said.