CHARLOTTE, N.C.  — The year 2020 was a rough one for a lot of people here in North Carolina.

Despite the pandemic raging through our country, Denise Hairston decided to finally open her new restaurant, Dee’s Vegan To Go.

“I got involved with this project back in March and then COVID hit, and then it slowed down everything,” she says. “It slowed down construction, but now I’m here finally.”

So far, Hairston says her restaurant is doing really well.

“People come in and everything is to go, and they wait in their car and we take stuff out,” she says. “ It’s curb service, so people love that, and they love it because it’s vegan.”

Dee’s Vegan To Go officially opened months later after a statewide shutdown.

Economist Dr. John Connaughton says some restaurants and businesses weren’t so lucky.

“A lot of small businesses have not been able to cope both because of government regulations, but also because it’s very costly to try and cope with some of these requirements to make a COVID safe requirement,” he says.

Connaughton is the director of the UNC Charlotte Economic Forecast and for over 30 years, he’s provided quarterly reports that detail North Carolina’s economy.

His most recent report shows promising signs that our state will recover this year. 

“The economy is in pretty good shape with an exception of a few sectors, which are still going to struggle in 2021,” he says. “ But as far as most folks in the state are concerned, by the second quarter of 2021 this will be pretty much behind you.”

Connaughton says while online retailers and food delivery services thrived in 2020, public transportation and airlines declined.

One of the hardest hit was hospitality and leisure. Connaughton says that sector will continue to struggle for the next couple of months.

“Ultimately, it’s going to be up to consumers and our comfort level with going back into environments where we can not social distance with people we don’t know,” he says.

With everything she’s experienced in 2020, Hairston says she’s prepared for what’s to come this year.

“Since I’ve come in with COVID, then it’s kind of like my expectations aren’t way up there because I started out and COVID hit from the beginning,” she says.

As she navigates a new business, she’s just hopeful she can grow and expand later down the road.

“I want to go to more communities that are considered food deserts and places like that and bring good vegan food to them, and see how they love it like the folks in this community have loved it,” says Hairston.

Connaughton believes the economy will level off by the middle of the summer.

He plans to release his next quarterly economic report later on in March.

If you want to read his full December report, you can find it here.