ST. LOUIS — iNDO owner Nick Bognar knows his restaurant's reputation, and it's the kind of concept that isn't as popular during a pandemic.
"I definitely would have thought of iNDO as a special occasion kind of restaurant," he said. "And we're a small restaurant, too, so that meant we were often booked out."
Just months after winning Best New Chef from Food & Wine Magazine, Bognar should be riding a wave of success, but the pandemic has changed everything for restauranteurs, including their business model.
Bognar has expanded his new patio into the parking lot to create the same seating capacity as he would have had indoors, and iNDO will transition to a new concept: iNDO Streetfood.
"When it comes to to-go, we're going to have to bring that price point down a little bit to kind of match everybody's value," Bognar said of the more accessible offerings. "I think that this is going to be very high value for what you get, and at the same time fun and interesting and fresh."
"Restauranteurs overnight had to kind of re-concept and rethink their restaurants," St. Louis Community College Professor of Hospitality Studies Casey Shiller said.
A chef himself, Shiller said some of the biggest struggles for upscale, fine dining establishments are about space: the cozy, inmate settings in most restaurants and the cost of their physical buildings.
"Unfortunately, patrons don't have the ability to sit down for a multi-course meal in very tight quarters," he said.
Chef and restaurant owner Logan Ely recently transitioned his upscale offerings at Savage to a more casual concept, with a new name that reflects the change.
"We'll name the restaurant 'Shift,' and embrace that attitude of like, alright, we're going to barbecue this week, and we're gonna do sandwiches next weekend. Maybe in two months, we'll sell trampolines or insurance policies," he said, jokingly (hopefully).
Food blog Whiskey & Soba recently tweeted a list of many St. Louis restaurants overhauling their concepts, with iNDO and Shift on the roster.
Both Bognar and Ely said they'd been contemplating a second restaurant for a while, but they made the change now because of the pandemic. And each says they'd like to return to their upscale-roots -- but first -- they're focused on the meal ahead of them.
"If you want restaurants around in a year -- and not just Taco Bell and McDonald's and the Cracker Barrel -- go support your restaurants," Ely said.
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