When coronavirus and Cinco de Mayo collide, Charlotte restaurants, diners both lose
With Cinco de Mayo falling on a Taco Tuesday and people being cooped up for weeks, Mexican restaurants in Charlotte had braced themselves for a busy day.
Dalton Espaillat had a plan in place. As CEO of Three Amigos Mexican Grill and Cantina and 14 Sabor Latin Street Grill locations, he knows all too well how hectic the day can be.
But Espaillat had yet to experience a Cinco de Mayo like this one — nor had members of his management team, some of whom have worked in the hospitality industry for decades.
“They said they’d never seen anything like this in their 40-year career,” Espaillat said.
Espaillat spent the next morning responding to e-mails and messages from customers frustrated with their experiences. Many took to social media to complain about hours-long wait times, unfulfilled orders and insufficient social distancing measures.
Most of those problems can be attributed to the volume of online orders the restaurants received, Espaillat said. On a typical Cinco de Mayo, his restaurants expect 2-3 times the amount of a normal day’s orders, with 2-3 hour wait times, as well.
This year, some of his restaurants received 10 times the normal amount of orders. While wait times were the 2-3 hours he was accustomed to, this wasn’t reflected through the online process.
When customers placed their orders, by default they were told the food would be ready in an hour. But due to the amount of orders placed, Espaillat’s restaurants were not able to keep up with that demand — and they were unable to communicate that with customers.
So Sabor and Three Amigos decided to shut down online orders every 30 minutes in an effort to catch up. They also shut down their third-party delivery services, yet some drivers continued to push orders through.
“Even though we shut off their systems, they overrode our cancellations and they kept sending in orders,” Espaillat said. “So now I have delivery drivers really mad, both customers and delivery drivers inside stores. People are waiting outside for curbside pickup because our phones are busy.”
Then it rained, forcing everyone inside. Tables were originally set up to ensure appropriate social distancing between customers and the cashier, Espaillat said, but employees could not get everyone to disperse.
Some customers left without getting their food, but their orders were still in the queue — which further contributed to the long wait times. Eventually, the restaurants shifted to fulfilling only the orders of those who were there to pick up their food.
At Sabor’s University location, the problems were compounded when online ordering inadvertently did not get turned off. About 400 orders were submitted in an hour. (For reference, Espaillat said 30-40 orders in an hour would have been impossible to fulfill.)
“We weren’t ready to take all of Charlotte at once,” he said.
Other restaurants in Charlotte struggled
While Three Amigos and Sabor might have had their own challenges, other restaurants in town also struggled to keep up with demand.
Charlottean Meg Molony said she and her husband have been diligent about social distancing, and they opted to pick up Cinco de Mayo dinner from Cabo Fish Taco since the restaurant offered curbside delivery. But when Molony pulled up, she was unable to get anyone on the phone, despite trying for 20 minutes. She had a mask in the car and, not knowing what else to do, went inside to find a crowd of people that had done the same. Some wore masks, others did not. Some kept distance, others bumped into her.
“It was just a really weird experience,” Molony said. “I was just completely shocked that so many people just seemed fine with it.”
Molony eventually canceled her order and left. She said she understands that the restaurant was overwhelmed, but she wishes they had done more to enforce social distancing. “I don’t care about the tacos,” she said. “I care about the Charlotte community’s safety more than anything.”
Maeghan Crenshaw, owner and operator of Cabo Fish Taco, said before Tuesday night, the restaurant had not had more than 10 customers in the restaurant at one time since March 30, and that the entire dining room has been cleared to provide more room for social distancing. However, Cabo had the same issue that Sabor and Three Amigos faced: a huge amount of orders in a very short amount of time, many of them from third-party delivery services.“In the past we have not had a problem with social distancing but going forward we are keenly aware that we need to have appropriate restrictions so that in our establishment people feel safe and secure,” wrote Crenshaw in an e-mail. “We have been working throughout the day in an effort to provide a safe social distancing environment so that we will never face this problem again.”
The new plan going forward will include regulating third-party delivery services and setting up boundaries and tape inside so that no more than four people can pick up at a time. All employees must now wear masks (they were already all wearing gloves), and the restaurant will have a dedicated employee for curbside service so customers don’t have to leave their vehicles.
Espaillat hasn’t had time to look at the day’s numbers — he’s had his hands full trying to respond to the customers who have reached out. Still he considers the day “a huge loss” and estimated he’ll need to refund half of the orders that came in.
“There was no win on this one at all,” he said.
Yet for all of the negative phone calls and complaints, Sabor has received love from customers on social media, as well. Even some of the people who had to cancel their orders said they will be back soon.
“A lot of people have said we love you guys, we’re going to use this refund with you very soon,” Espaillat said. “That gave me a lot of peace of mind.”
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 5:17 PM.
