CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of a food hall in Charlotte.

Optimist Hall, which has 19 businesses operating, celebrated the milestone with live music and specials.

Erik Johnson who is one of the developers of Optimist Hall said the community welcomed the concept from the start.

“It was exciting. You saw each day more people showed up,” Johnson said.

However, Johnson recognizes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges.

“Between August and February, we were doing very well. We did not underwrite a global pandemic as a potential risk so when March rolled around, we were able to pivot. We got creative and operated what we called ‘Charlotte’s largest drive-thru here in our Uber’s drop off,” Johnson said.

Ava Pizzeria opened its food stall at Optimist Hall in November. The business remained open for carry-out during the stay-at-home order.

“It has been great. COVID has put a damper on things obviously. We’ve adapted and done everything we can to keep going and stay afloat,” Ava Pizzeria Executive Chef Joshua Hernandez said.

Some of the strategies Hernandez has implemented to stay afloat include making the menu smaller to increase efficiency, a lower amount of ingredients, and cut down waste.

Billy Sunday, a cocktail bar at Optimist Hall, had recently opened when the pandemic started. Stephanie Andrews who is the manager of Billy Sunday and Spindle Bar says Billy Sunday closed for a while and reopened two weeks ago. 

The business is currently offering crafted cocktails, vintage spirits, and pizza from Ava Pizzeria.

“We just try to do to the best of our ability to take care not only of the safety of our guests but our employees. The business of course declined but we are happy to be open. We are happy to be serving,” Andrews said.

However, she said business is at 30 percent of what they were doing in the past.

“We lost capacity too. As you can see we have no bar seats. We have everything spaced out so we lost places to put people and seats as well so it has been a huge impact on us,” Andrews said.

Hernandez has noticed business is starting to pick up again.

“We are certainly down but we’ve been noticing the past few weeks an upward trend. People have been coming out to eat more,” Hernandez said.

Johnson said in general the past month was better for businesses.

“Our businesses were down more, significantly, more so in April. March we got full half a month that was really good. May was slow. June was slow and by the time we got by July, things started to feel a little bit better. Things feel a little bit better today. I think is a function of how people feel broadly about what’s going on,” Johnson said.

Johnson said when customers visit Optimist Hall, they will notice more safety measures in place.

“I think we’ve adapted and figured how to work within the framework of what the CDC guidelines are for keeping people safe, social distancing. We have a ton of extra space. We are able to spread out seating, create some outdoor seating, and try to keep touchpoints clean. [We] feel that’s the best way to help guests feel welcome and feel safe,” Johnson said.

Optimist Hall will have four additional tenants coming in between now and 2021.