The mom-and-pop owners of an Arlington restaurant posted on social media last week that their establishment is on its last legs.
The community steps up and says in a unified voice, "not on our watch."
"Fork In The Road is dying, we are very close to having to shutter our doors for good," the owners posted on its Facebook page shortly after 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15.
"We couldn’t get the loans because bigger businesses took them all before we even got considered," the post continued. "We’ve now depleted both the owners' entire savings trying to stay open. Not to mention, the owners haven’t taken a cent of pay in over two years, so they are working for free and have been to keep us going.
"We’ve had to cut our hours even more because of no staff (no applicants in over a year) so we only have the 2 owners and 1 loyal, hard working employee that’s been with us since day 1 to handle everything," the post continued."
They also mentioned that while they're trying to keep from raising their prices, the price of everything has gone up drastically -- and not just the food.
"We used to pay $15 a case for to-go boxes, we now have to pay $45 a case because we have no choice or we don’t have to-go boxes."
Since Josh Hopkins and his wife made that emotional post, customers have flocked to Fork In The Road in a big way.
"I figured we'd say something to the community and maybe somebody would catch it," says Hopkins, "and oh boy did they catch it."
That was especially the case last Thursday.
"We opened at 11:00; and at 11:03, we had no seats and there were seven people standing in line at the register, and I had people outside waiting for tables," Hopkins says.
So much so that each day they were open last week, they had to close early because customers cleaned them out of food.
"We ended up closing Thursday at 3:00," says Hopkins, "because we ran out of food."
A.J. Lennon and his fiancee, Jessica Kidd, dined at Fork In The Road Saturday afternoon.
"Being a part of the community like this, it's very important to keep small businesses like this open," says Lennon.
"I have been coming here for years, and I love the mac and cheese, and I would just hate for it to disappear, and I love this place," adds Kidd. "And it's such good food and good people."
Donna Shelton also expressed her support for the restaurant, while enjoying a nice lunch there Saturday afternoon.
"I heard about it on Nextdoor that they might be getting ready to close, so I thought, 'I'm going to go there and support them,' because they're local and I live here in Arlington, so I just think it's an awesome thing," says Shelton.
"I really wanted to show support to local families and local businesses like this that we just need to keep around," added Joy Law.
Hopkins says he's blown away at the support.
"It feels awesome to feel this loved," says Hopkins. "I didn't really think we were loved this much, but we apparently are."
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