BLACKSBURG, Va. (WFXR) — As COVID-19 numbers begin to surge again, many southwest Virginia businesses say they still haven’t totally recovered from the impacts of the pandemic. Now inflation is also taking a big bite out of their bottom line. Tack on a staffing shortage, it’s a recipe for some big problems, especially when businesses lose student employees.
In college towns like Blacksburg, many students are saying goodbye to their favorite local restaurants as they graduate or head home for summer vacation.
Both The Blacksburg Tavern and The Maroon Door say that Virginia Tech students make up a significant portion of their staff. Now, with a number of those students leaving campus for the summer, the restaurants say some changes need to be made.
The owner of The Blacksburg Tavern, Daniel Riley says this right after graduation is always a hard time for business.
“The week following graduation is traditionally a slow week, but then the rest of the summer is actually really good,” said Riley.
On top of that, Riley says The Blacksburg Tavern never fully recovered from the pandemic.
“We’ve been dinner only from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday,” said Riley.
He adds that 2019 was the eatery’s last normal year for business.
Just down the block, the owner of The Maroon Door, Chris Linden, says he had to make some quick adjustments because of the number of Virginia Tech students he employs.
“You kind of scramble to try to retrain and get everyone back up to speed. It’s about getting them ready to go is the hard part,” Linden told WFXR News.
With nearly 40 staff members, Linden says he’s already lost close to 20 student employees. However, when it comes to staffing, he says he is not worried.
“We’ve seen about 20 applications in the past week and so we’ve hired about eight people so far,” said Linden.
Despite the struggle of students leaving, both Riley and Linden say business is still good and they only see it getting better.
For example, Riley says he has gotten a lot of community requests to open up The Blacksburg Tavern for brunch.
“That’s the first expansion we would like to make, so anytime now,” said Riley.
He says The Blacksburg Tavern is a special place because it’s a restaurant that’s on a mission.
“This is a historical house preservation project, so when I bought this place, it was just months away from demolition, so I swooped in and bought it and restored it, and saved it from the wrecking ball,” Riley said.
When it comes to the rest of the summer, he says he is in good shape.
“The summertime is lots of orientations, lots of families visiting,” Riley explained, “so summertime in Blacksburg drops off from May numbers, but not terribly. They’re more like April numbers, so I’m still good.”
For Linden, he says he relies on the town to keep the business going when the students leave.
“Even though all the kids are gone, the town quiets down, you get lot of the locals who come out from under the rocks and out of their hiding places and come out and enjoy. We’ve been pretty busy this week,” sad Linden.
He adds that his success with the restaurant is based on his great reputation, as well as all the college kids telling their friends about The Maroon Door.
