Yolanda Fernandez, left, Rocio Campos, Bailey Noel, and Lucero Perez pose for a photo Monday morning at Berry Field's Cafe in Centralia.
Berry Fields in Centralia has expended to add a dinner menu during the coronavirus restaurant shutdown.
Editor’s Note: The Chronicle is working to assist local businesses suffering from the effects of the COVID-19 virus spread and associated government orders to close or limit commerce. There will be a feature on a local business in each edition of The Chronicle and at chronline.com moving forward. To be considered, email reporter Eric Trent at etrent@chronline.com. Additionally, The Chronicle will continue to offer its coverage of the coronavirus and its effects across the community, state and nation free outside of our paywall at chronline.com.
Shane Noel has been in the food business his entire life, but he’s never seen anything like this.
With the novel coronavirus outbreak, the past few weeks have upended restaurants across the nation, and Noel’s restaurant, Berry Fields Cafe in Centralia, has not been immune.
Noel bought the cafe a little over a year ago on April 1, 2019, and has worked for U.S. Foods, one of America’s leading food service distributors, for the past 23 years. He was the food purveyor for Berry Fields Cafe and its original owners for the past 15 years and saw an opportunity to own the type of restaurant he liked.
“I love the business, I love the food business, I’m a real foodie and I love making people smile with food,” Noel said. “That’s just something that comes through when you’re around me. I’m a foodie at heart.”
He’s still a territory manager at U.S. Foods. His wife, Nicole Noel, and son, Bailey Noel, work at Berry Fields, with his wife as co-owner and Bailey as the manager.
Business was booming for Berry Fields before the virus hit. The cafe has a 4.7 rating out of five stars on Facebook, a 4.6 rating on Google reviews, a 4.5 on TripAdvisor and a 4-star rating on Yelp. But the restaurant has seen a 70 to 80 percent decrease in business the past few weeks since a statewide order to close in-dining at all places of entertainment went into effect.
The cafe recently launched a new dinner menu on Thursday, April 9, with items such as a traditional turkey dinner for $15.99, grandma’s homemade meatloaf for $14.99, chicken alfredo for $14.99, along with chicken fried steak ($13.99), homemade chili ($11.99) and homemade spaghetti ($15.99).
“It’s helped quite a bit,” Noel said. “The new dinner menu items have been very popular. It’s all homemade and the public has received it well.”
The most popular dishes on the new menu have been the turkey dinner, the meatloaf and the chicken alfredo. Noel noted his restaurant is known for its generous portions.
The new dinners coincide with new hours, with the restaurant open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dinner runs from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, while lunch is also served until closing and breakfast is served until 3 p.m. When statewide in-dining restrictions are lifted, it plans to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and it hopes to continue its dinner menu, as well.
It’s also implemented an online ordering portal at www.berryfieldscafe.com, where customers can place their orders online and choose either curbside pickup or delivery. It also has delivery service through DoorDash.
Noel said adapting to new ways of business has been a necessity.
“Down 70 to 80 percent, all the normal business bills are still there,” Noel said. “You still have your rent, your payments so you have to find a way to make it work.”
The toughest aspect for Noel and his cafe since the coronavirus outbreak hit has been trying to get enough revenue to break even on profits and keep the doors open. He’s trying to keep as many of his 20 or so employees employed as long as possible while making sure Berry Fields is still around when this is all over. The employees have, obviously, seen their hours reduced, and the ones who were previously making breakfast, lunches and dinners all day, have been gaining hours by deep cleaning the entire restaurant, inside and out.
“We’ve spent a ton of time cleaning all the surfaces and disinfecting,” Noel said.
Noel and his family are helping the employees any way they can. A few of them were having challenges filing their paperwork while applying for unemployment and he made sure they were taken care of.
“There’s 20 employees that, it’s really hard to look at them and say, ‘I don’t have hours for everybody right now,’” Noel said. “This new dinner menu has added quite a few hours back to the equation.”
Noel commended Washington residents for doing their part in self-isolating and keeping everyone safe for the time being. He’s hopeful the cafe can survive these current times.
“That’s what we want to do and we can’t wait to see all of our customers back in the dining room,” Noel said. “We really, really miss seeing all the familiar faces in the dining room. We can’t wait to come out the other side of this.”
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Reporter Eric Trent can be reached at etrent@chronline.com. Visit chronline.com/business for more coverage of local businesses.
