Nancy Farrar
Thirty Eight & Vine
If you talked to Jennifer Demel about four months ago, she would have told you she had no intention of getting a food and beverage permit for her Foundry District wine bar, Thirty Eight & Vine. But after Governor Greg Abbott ordered a third round of closures for bars as COVID-19 hospitalizations rose in December, Demel says she’s glad she changed her mind.
“We went ahead and got our food and beverage permit because I assumed another shutdown would occur,” she says. “When the third wave of shutdowns happened, we were able to continue to stay open … We have always had a food menu, always offered charcuterie boards, cheese boards, desserts, and just some light bites. Now we’re really just pushing those sales.”
Many local bars have been reclassifying as restaurants in order to remain open during the pandemic, pushing their food sales alongside wine, beer, and cocktails so as to not make more than 51% of profits on alcohol (which would then classify the business as a bar). Thompson’s Bookstore is doing the same, and while it took a bit of experimenting to see what kind of food customers were willing to buy, the downtown speakeasy eventually partnered with Sweeties Cheesecakes to develop a dessert-and-cocktails identity.
“You have to get out of your head what’s been working for the past few years and understand that you have to operate in a different space until we get to a managed situation,” says general manager Warren Koguc. “I say ‘managed’ because normalcy is going to take a long time to get back to.”
Koguc says he understands why bars have been seemingly singled out in pandemic-related closures. “This virus very much thrives in those close social situations and transmits very easily. The reason why restaurants realistically get to open versus bars is the very nature of having your own contained space and not being packed in with other people but your own party. Bars in general don’t operate like that. They’re meant to create social situations … When we reopened the first time, we learned why there was a difference.”
But dealing with closures and restructuring hasn’t been easy, Demel says, estimating her business is making about 30% of what it used to make pre-pandemic. “There’s only so much small-business owners can do. It starts to compromise what your actual business model is and what you are trying to provide to the customer. It’s been a real up and down of emotions over the past several months.”
Late last year, however, Demel found herself in an interesting situation when a new opportunity seemingly fell onto her lap — the chance to take over Craftwork Coffee Co.’s Foundry space after the shop closed in November.
At first, Demel considered using the space for additional seating for Thirty Eight & Vine, allowing for more social distancing. But with the café equipped with a small kitchen and coworking space available for other businesses to rent (Demel and her husband, Sam, have a background in real estate), they decided to keep it a coffee shop, reopening as Trinity Coffee House with all previous Craftwork staff still employed.
“It has been a little crazy,” Demel says. “But it’s been really exciting as well. I feel like over the last several months, with having Thirty Eight & Vine and it being so heartbreaking at times being closed and having mixed emotions, getting to come into something new has helped … it’s been, in a weird way, what we’ve needed.”
