Pair of Thunder Bay restaurateurs move forward with new establishments during pandemic
At a time when many businesses are struggling to stay alive, two Thunder Bay restaurants have had the COVID-19 pandemic play a major role in the decisions to open their doors.
Jamie Baratta had been living in Mexico and was preparing to open a hostel with a business partner when the pandemic started last March. He returned home to Thunder Bay, which led to him starting Nortenos Taqueria, a Mexican restaurant in the city's Westfort neighbourhood that opened in October.
Baratta described it as a family investment.
"My brother is my business partner. My parents help immensely. My mom is actually the one who found the building. My sister is the one who made the uniforms for us."
"We were already close, but it brought us all together even closer. Just being in Westfort is amazing to us. My dad grew up in this side of town, and it's where we wanted to be. The community has been awesome."
Nikos Mantis has seen two of his business ventures take a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the Nomad space inside the Thunder Bay International Airport to close completely for three months at the start of the pandemic, and the Pinetree Catering business having slowed down due to restrictions on events and gatherings.
Mantis said the idea for a new location came after seeing a sign advertising a space in the city's Bay and Algoma neighbourhood being available for lease.
The Nomad location on Bay Street opened in December.
"The vision and structure behind the business we built very much has the pandemic in mind," he said.
"We very deliberately created a space that was a take-out spot without any interior seating and we took into account all of the restrictions the first lockdown brought and tried to incorporate that into our business model to make sure it was somewhat pandemic proof."
Baratta said, since the province-wide lockdown that took effect on Boxing Day and the stay-at-home restrictions earlier this month, their orders have shifted away from foot traffic and more towards online or over the phone.
"A lot of our business has transferred over to that. When we first opened and we had limited seating we had a lot of walk-in orders, but now we're pretty much all phone-in orders or SkipTheDishes," he said.
Mantis said the decision to open the new location was about more than just him.
"A big part of the goal was to ensure the employees we had in the various wings of our business were able to keep their jobs," Mantis said.
"We did see some significant layoffs in the first round of the pandemic, and it warms my heart we've been able to hire everyone back and hire new staff through opening this new location. For me, it's being able to provide meaningful employment for my staff and giving them job security."