Bao T Ha - Dundee Dell, Absolutely Fresh Seafood Co.

MARCH 19, 2020 © Right Here, Right Now.

"When all this started I was kind of depressed, the state the world, our state, our country is in. I mean It’s upside down, it’s on fire right now. Some people get it, some people don’t…we all get it now. Kind of depressed to see how things were and walking into an empty dining room. I use to walk in and say “Hey guys, How's it going”? You have your staff, you have your friends that you see every day. Some people aren’t able to come out and say “Hi” and some people just are here to say hi to. SO just kind of…like I’m done with the whole situation but gotta keep going so…yeah.

I’m grateful for my staff. I guess my position is that I operate a handful of restaurants in town with Absolutely Fresh Restaurant Group. We’ve had to lean on our management team, and these are people that I’ve worked with and have come up with along the way, we didn’t start with five units, we started with one. So all these people have helped me grow, helped the company grow, and have grown themselves and I’ve been on them and have asked them to change how they’re doing and what we’re doing at an instant and they have all said “Yes”. They come out and help us out. That’s one of the things I’m grateful for is the people I have around me.

The end of this really keeps me going right now. If I didn’t think we can get through this, I would probably just fold. But we have to keep pushing, and it keeps my mind at work, if I don’t keep busy my mind kind of wanders and would probably get more depressed about our current situation. So this keeps me going, the hope that we’ll be here for our people when we get out of this, keeping things operational with bare-bones, so if we can stay here and hold out and when we start to rebuild and bring people back in, being able to give back to those people keeps me going.

Working with the restaurant group here…It’s all family. Our owner Greg has kind of been there for everybody. He’s a very down to earth owner, he comes in and says hi to everybody. He knows a lot of the staff. He isn’t an owner-operator from afar, he’s very much involved in the daily operations of his restaurants. He trusts us to do what we do, it’s very family-oriented and that’s where it comes from is him. He grew up in a family business and he now owns a family business. So, treat everybody like a family, that's why we’re trying so hard to stay open right now, to maybe not be able to afford everybody some hours but, the select few some hours, it’s hard to pay your rent, keep food on the table for some people, but if we can stay open to be able to do that for some people right now, you know everybody’s scared and most of the industry is shut down so these people worry about rent, food, kids, how is anybody going to support themselves so if we are able enough to work through this, you know we’ve changed our business model from in house dining and a bar to take out only, but if we can push with the help with everyone else to keep going then yeah, we can try to create a job or two or some extra hours for somebody to make it work.

I spend so much time focusing on the day and just trying to get through this. I’d be definitely hopeful obviously to see the end and to see this go away, there is an end of the tunnel somewhere and we’ll get to the light, and you know it’ll be summer, the sun will be shining, we can hang out with our friends and have some beers in the garage or whatnot by the end of this and that’ll be a good time…go have a cigar. 

We’re here, we’re doing what we can. Everybody is doing what they can and good people will always be good people.

Take care of your circle, you have your people that you’re around and if you can be a leader and stay strong, those people will look to you in a time like this, don’t waiver, be who you are and take care of your people. 

It’s very hard to operate in this environment, you know we could have shut the doors and turned everyone away and say “Hey, we can’t do this anymore” but you gotta fight, we’re still here fighting. But yeah, sometimes that other option would have been easier but that’s not the option we’re choosing, protecting some of our people, again taking care of your circle….that’s who Greg is, that’s who I am so we continue to push."