MIDLAND, Texas — Starting a business will always be a huge risk, especially when it opens its doors right before a pandemic hits.
Tall City Brewing Co. had been open for less than 6 months before COVID-19 struck. And like other businesses, they banked on curbside to hold them over.
Like other bars and restaurants, Tall City Brewing Co. had to shut down their dine-in seating area.
According to co-owner Jeff Thomas, he wasn't sure that curbside would be enough to make it through the pandemic.
"If I said there wasn’t a little bit of doubt I’d be lying. We just had no idea what was going to happen and how people were going to react to, you know, specifically curbside growlers. This whole thing is just, you know, it’s an unknown for everybody," Thomas said.
Thomas and the rest of the team took the plunge with the hope that they would succeed. And succeed they have, even if there were a few hiccups along the way.
"The first day was chaotic. We didn’t know what the heck we were doing and so we realized we needed to do some sort of drive-through and so we became more efficient doing that and people caught on," Thomas said.
The changes have proven to be effective and efficient. As cars come through the drive-through, one employee meets the driver at the car and takes the order. Cars come and go quickly, even at times when Tall City Brewing Co. has limited staff. Improving their curbside service and limiting employees have proven to be important factors in helping Tall City Brewing Co. succeed.
"For us, it’s easy. We can have low overhead. It’s just a couple of people it takes to serve growlers. We’re not doing food at all so it’s just beer. That’s helped, our location has helped, and the fact that we are one of the only ones here has helped," Thomas said.
Despite all of the success Tall City Brewing Co. has had, everything has not been perfect. Like other businesses, they've felt the sting of losing profits due to fewer customers coming in than they've been accustomed to.
"It’s dropped, but it’s nothing. I mean we’re covering expenses and that’s all you wanna do right now just to stay open. We know this isn’t permanent, it’s temporary," Thomas said.
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