Irwin restaurant opens amid pandemic; state restrictions hurt eateries
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Candy Zambo says it was just her luck that she tried to open a restaurant in downtown Irwin in midst of a pandemic.
“I’ve wanted to do this. I’ve always loved the restaurant industry,” Zambo said, undeterred by the circumstances surrounding the opening of Candy’s Corner Cafe at 435 Main St., sandwiched between a borough parking lot and the corner of Fifth Street.
“This is my entire being right now,” Zambo said of working at what she describes as a restaurant with homestyle cooking.
With construction halted for about two months because of state restrictions on nonessential businesses, the opening was delayed until mid-July.
Zambo and her husband, Christopher Budd, of North Huntingdon, looked for a building for a restaurant last year and almost landed one in White Oak, but the deal fell through. She searched for another site and saw the vacant building that housed a dry cleaning business about 20 years ago.
She signed a contract in mid-February and her plans for the restaurant were announced at an Irwin council meeting in early March. But that was before Gov. Wolf announced restrictions in an effort to stop the spread of covid-19.
Contractors had to hold off on adding a commercial kitchen and installing a metal ceiling.
To give it the look of a mom-and-pop restaurant from the 1950s and ’60s, they used vintage wall art such as a rusted Dad’s Root Beer thermometer, a Coke sign with a clock serving as a thermometer, and a “coffee for sale” sign. A 1968 Wurlitzer jukebox that plays 45s sits in one corner. Nearby is a pay phone with coin slots on top.
Budd said he would like to have a wall painting of Main Street of downtown Irwin from the days when the borough was connected to other communities by West Penn Railway trolleys.
Candy’s specializes in farm-fresh food. A deli counter has food for take-out and baked goods are made fresh.
Zambo entered the business with some experience in making and selling food. She and her husband had operated a food truck for five years, selling a variety of sandwiches. She also prepared and sold about 100 family meals a week with her daughter, Sarah, by spreading the word on Facebook.
She has kept the doors open six days a week, despite the Wolf’s order in mid-July that reduced her ability to serve sit-down meals to 25% indoor capacity.
“People have been very patient” while waiting for seating, Zambo said.
Zambo is confident enough about the venture that she said goodbye to her former occupation as an insurance broker, even though Irwin has several restaurants in its downtown business district.
“We’re all different,” Zambo said.
The biggest challenge to opening a restaurant during the pandemic has not been getting customers or the reduction in seating — but in attracting employees, Zambo said.
She attributes that to the federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which paid unemployed workers $600 a week, more than they were getting while working. That federal compensation program ended in late July.
“One of the greatest challenges is having enough qualified help,” Zambo said, noting restaurant work can sometimes be “a hectic, hot atmosphere.”
Opening a restaurant in the midst of the government restrictions is unusual, said John Longstreet, president of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, a Harrisburg-based trade group.
“We’re definitely seeing more temporary closings or permanent closings” than openings, Longstreet said.
One study has projected that about 7,500 of the restaurants that closed temporarily because of pandemic restrictions will close permanently, Longstreet said.
“Twenty-five percent capacity is not good. It will kill restaurants and jobs, about 200,000 (jobs),” Longstreet said.