Kim Fairbairn, co-owner of Max’s Tavern, bought the bar in 1993 with her husband when they were both in their early 20s. Now, after laying off their 24 employees due to the financial burden caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Fairbairn said it feels as though they are right back where they started.
“We don’t know how we’ll make our necessary payments,” she said. “You could pretty much say this is absolutely devastating to a small business like us.”
Max’s is one of many bars in Eugene whose business was hit hard by COVID-19. Some adjusted their services after Gov. Kate Brown’s March 16 order limiting bars to takeout and delivery, while others elected to close temporarily.
Spring is normally Max’s “busy time,” where it is able to stock away enough money to last through the slower summer periods, Fairbairn said. While the bar would typically be averaging $3,000 a day right now, it is currently selling “maybe” $100 of food and growlers per day, she said.
“It’s almost not worth it to do it,” she said.
Fairbairn said she has heard some of the employees that were laid off “aren’t making rent.” She and her husband will apply for any loan that they can, she said, and whether or not they can rehire their staff depends on if they receive a payroll loan.
Fairbairn could lose a business she has owned for nearly three decades, which she said she had “hoped to sell in five years and retire.” Still, she said, “I’m a fighter. That’s part of owning a small business, is you tough it out, and we have a lot of great employees that I really hope to bring back as soon as I can.”
Max’s is currently serving takeout and delivery, but orders have been slow because it is “not really known as a restaurant” as much as it is a gathering spot. “But I’m not bitter about it, I understand,” she said, “and if it saves one person’s life, then it’s okay.”
Regarding her and her husbands’ decision to continue operating, she said, “We just feel it’s important to be a service to your neighborhood, and we have several people that Max’s was their place to meet their friends, to gather in a community, and we just really want to let them know that we are still there for them and we will be once we reopen.”
Old Nick’s Pub has a walk-up window “right off the sidewalk” that was installed when the establishment was first built. “It was prohibitively expensive and it never took off and, honestly, it’s saving our ass right now,” co-owner Jevon Peck said.
Food sales for the pub have quadrupled, he said, but its overall business has dropped about 80-90% since Brown’s bar order, and all employees were laid off.
“We couldn’t afford to pay people,” he said. “If we hadn’t let people go immediately, I was telling my partners that there’s no way we’re going to be able to make payroll the next time.”
Peck said he and his partners are “applying for every small business loan” and “every small business grant” but have not received anything yet.
He said food was “never the strong point” of Old Nick’s, but a silver lining in having to completely change its business model is, “If we do survive this is actually gonna really up our food sales, because now a lot of people know about us.” He also said the pub has received “a lot of community support.”
Blairally Vintage Arcade closed temporarily on March 16 after Gov. Brown’s order, according to Chief Lambert, the back-of-the-house manager. He said its management furloughed nearly all staff “with the intent to rehire them as soon as the state regulations allow us to open our doors again.”
While management considered it, Lambert said they “couldn’t figure out a profitability in the concept of just doing to-go food” because Blairally doesn’t sell nearly as much food as alcohol and its takeout has never been very busy.
Lambert said he is “extremely concerned” about how COVID-19 could impact Blairally in the long term.
“If the government allows us to go back to normal business, I think we’d recover quickly,” he said. “Fortunately, Blairally is a popular spot and people are very loyal and we have a lot of local community around us that keep our bar in business. So I think if it lasted four weeks we’d be fine, if it lasted eight weeks we’d be okay and if it lasts any longer than that, it seems a little bit unsure.”
Colby Phillips, the co-owner and operator of Beergarden, said the majority of its employees were laid off. He hopes to be able to bring them all back at some point, he said, but also anticipates that a portion of the population will be hesitant to dine-in even when allowed to.
“Just what percentage is that of our regular customers?” he asked. “That’s what I don’t know, is it 50%, 75% that come back? Initially, what’s the rollout going to be?”
Phillips said Beergarden is built for in-house service rather than takeout and delivery, but the fact that there is typically only one person working in each of its four carts is a benefit because it is conducive to social distancing.
Horsehead Bar closed immediately after Brown’s order, and about 24 employees were laid off, co-owner Tom Tracey said.
“We’re kind of isolated down here,” he said, being located downtown rather than a residential neighborhood. “As far as where people live, there’s things that are far more convenient to them and such, and it just seemed like it’d be kind of a half-assed way of doing things.”
Tracey is doing what he can — keeping the bar clean, offering financial support to the managers if needed and applying for a loan. But the bar, like the rest of the world, was not prepared for the pandemic to strike.
“I don’t see what really anybody could do,” he said. “You can’t be prepared for being hit by an asteroid.”
