Las Vegas restaurants are famous around the world. Jeff Pugh, the owner of Freedom Meats, thinks there’s a good chance that the last medium-rare steak you had on the Strip came from his business. However, the last time you ate steak on the Strip was more than 2-months ago, and the problem for Jeff Pugh is that none of the restaurants on the Strip have been ordering due to the shutdown.
The good news is, many of Pugh’s casino-based clients are scheduled to open in a few weeks, and things are still looking up for Freedom Meats.
As Casinos Reopen Famous Las Vegas Restaurants are Back
“The conversations I’ve had with most of the casinos say they’re opening,” Pugh said. “We’re moving forward. Have there been setbacks on the numbers we’re anticipating? Yes. But hey, Vegas has been asleep for almost three months, and they say Vegas never sleeps so we’re excited. To get purchase orders flying through my is exciting.”
However, Pugh pointed out that his business won’t be revived right away when the restrictions are lifted, especially compared to where the business was in early March.
“If Freedom Meats was at ten, we went to a 0.5. We didn’t even get to one on the restaurant side of our business,” he said. “Where are we today? At best, we’re at a two. But, with the casinos opening up with week we’re already getting orders. We’re already processing and shipping. So, we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s going to be a crawl, it’s a very slow process, but we’ve got to start somewhere.”
Offering Wholesale Meat to the Public
As the stay-at-home order kicked in, panic buying cleared the grocery stores not only of toilet paper, but also of meat. And as Las Vegas restaurants were forced to shut down, meat wholesalers such as Freedom Meats were left with tons of unsold products. Pugh attempted to solve both problems by launching Blackbox Meats, an online portal to order for pick up.
While Freedom Meats typically receive 170 to 200 orders from Las Vegas restaurants every day, Blackbox Meats received more than 2,000 orders in just two days. That enabled Pugh to call back some of his furloughed workers. But unfortunately, Pugh and his crew were unprepared for the overwhelming response and fell behind fulfilling the thousands of orders.
“We did not schedule pickup times,” Pugh said. “So what happened is we would have 40 or 50 people in front of our building at a time, and we couldn’t control it.”
To make matters worse, as Pugh attempted to contact customers about changing their pickups to deliveries, the company’s internet provider suddenly canceled service due to exceeding bandwidth, due to the unprecedented response. That resulted in lost and unanswered emails. To top things off, the delivery service Pugh had contracted to handle deliveries pulled drivers from BlackBox Meats to accommodate other local clients, namely two companies processing COVID-19 tests. Fortunately, Pugh was able to hire two in-house delivery drivers to get things back on track.
Las Vegas Restaurants Reopen
The second week of May brought a welcome sense of something resembling normal to Las Vegas restaurants on the Strip and beyond; at that time, restaurants were permitted to resume dine-in service. However, they can only operate at half their usual capacity, tables must be placed least six feet apart, and no table can seat more than five people.
Furthermore, reservations are required, and patrons must remain outside until their table is open. Bars and buffets remain closed. If the restaurant is located inside a casino, restaurant staff must wear face masks and guests are encouraged to wear masks too.
Las Vegas restaurant patrons will likely see higher bills due to the costs of meat have increased due to the pandemic shutdowns. For meat wholesalers such as Freedom Meats, the enforced reduction in Las Vegas restaurant seating also means reduced sales. But the enthusiastic response to the casino reopenings on June 4 bodes well for both Las Vegas restaurants, as well as the companies who supply them.
