Everything changed in a matter of days, and it took a while for S.Y. Kitchen to adjust.
The Santa Ynez fine dining restaurant had to let most of its employees go after California and Santa Barbara County put stay-at-home orders into place. Then it had to figure out how to make things work with a new supply chain for a different kind of service than it was used to.
“It’s like opening a new restaurant almost,” General Manager Dario Dell’Anno said. “We had to basically change everything. … The only thing that we did keep is the quality of the food and what we actually do. We prepare to-order, so that when people pick up their food, it’s freshly cooked.”
The whole process took about two to three weeks. Dell’Anno said the entire kitchen had to adjust from making cuisine for dine-in patrons to dishes that would be good for takeout. The food S.Y. Kitchen was serving before wasn’t meant to leave the restaurant.
Salad and pasta portion sizes increased a little bit as the kitchen learned how to cook food that wasn’t going to get eaten right away. And the cocktails had to change, too, because fresh-squeezed juices are better to drink as soon as they’re made.
Plus, the point-of-sale system wasn’t set up for to-go either.
“Operationally, it was hard, and getting product, and getting the product to do all the labeling and the packaging,” he said. “We had to basically come up with labels and packaging in just a few days, and make sure it looks good.”
At the beginning, getting products from vendors was tricky, because distributors were forced to adjust to the pandemic as well. With less demand from restaurants, delivery schedules changed and so did the drivers as some got furloughed. Certain vendors just cut the restaurant off completely, Dell’Anno said, but wouldn’t say why.
Imports from Italy, which make up the base of S.Y. Kitchen’s menu, stopped altogether. No more Italian mozzarella, olive oil, or tomato sauce. No more special flours that S.Y. Kitchen has used for years to make fresh pizza dough and pasta.
Dell’Anno said that the restaurant tracked down local purveyors and the ingredients are fresh and high quality, they’re just different. With new varieties of flour, for instance, the restaurant had to experiment to see what would work.
“We used three different types of flour that we got from this one Italian company, so we had to adjust the pasta and the pizza. Now we get the same quality flour and it’s a little bit more expensive, but we had to make it a little differently,” he said. “It takes a few days of trying to figure it out.”
Simply revamping the menu for to-go orders and adjusting recipes for the new normal isn’t enough to pay the bills. Rent and utilities stay the same, Dell’Anno said. So S.Y. Kitchen decided to try an outdoor market in front of the restaurant.
Fresh-made pasta and pasta sauce you can take home yourself. Ragu, lamb Bolognese, three-cheese sauce, truffle sauce, basil pesto. Fresh produce. Fresh jam. Cheese. Tiramisu. Panna cotta. Olive oil. Organic chicken broth. Gelato on the weekends.
There might even be a grill in the market’s future.
“Every day we try different stuff to see what’s selling and what’s doing well,” Dell’Anno said. “It’s been doing really well. We were really surprised.”
Don’t worry, S.Y. Kitchen didn’t forget to offer up those famous cocktails to-go, which might be the most fabulous thing to come out of the pandemic. Dell’Anno said the restaurant is selling bottles of four signature pre-mixed cocktails that come in sizes made for two and four people. And they’re popular, because after a long day in quarantine, there’s still nothing like a good cocktail to ease that worried mind.
“People want to pick a cocktail up and take it home and pour it over ice with a little garnish,” Dell’Anno said. “People love it. I think, the people, they appreciate it.”
Any extra proceeds from the market are pooled into an employee distribution fund, which the restaurant started almost immediately after it had to close for dining. Restaurant regulars also contribute to the fund, which gets divided up among the staff that were laid off, depending on their position as a full-time or part-time employee.
“Just something extra for the staff because we closed down, and nobody had a job and everybody was worried, and nobody knew what was going to happen,” he said. “They’ve been very good to us and so we try to do something for them, too.”
He’s looking forward to getting back to normal, although he isn’t sure that things will be like they were before the pandemic happened. S.Y. Kitchen applied for a small business loan through the federal government, but Dell’Anno said even if they get approved, they won’t be able to hire everybody back on.
“Let’s say we get the loan. What are we going to do when we reopen?” he said. “Most likely we aren’t going to get the same revenue, which is going to change everything.”
Really, though, S.Y. Kitchen, like every other restaurant, is waiting for the government to tell them what they can do in the next couple of months, so they can start planning for reopening. At least, in a limited capacity. Being able to do takeout, the market, and have dine-in customers could be the ticket to staying afloat, Dell’Anno said.
“Hopefully we can survive and keep the doors open,” he said. “That’s what all restaurants are afraid of.”
Editor Camillia Lanham is ready for a trip to Santa Ynez for gelato, pasta, and a to-go cocktail. Send food and drink tips to clanham@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 14-21, 2020.
