GREENSBORO, N.C. — It’s been three years since the COVID pandemic forced an immediate, lasting shift in how businesses function.

Greensboro restaurant Machete had to quickly pivot after opening only three weeks before the shutdown. 

Kevin Cottrell is the executive chef of Machete.

“We were getting ready for service and we got the word that everything was shutting down. We had kind of known it was coming, it was all over the news,” Cottrell said.

The pandemic forced the restaurant to close their doors in 2020.

“And then all of a sudden, within 24 hours, it went from not worrying about it, to everybody’s getting laid off. We don’t know if we’re going to stay open or what’s going to happen,” Cottrell said.

He says they had to let go 90% of their staff, or about 25-30 people, because they were a new restaurant and didn’t have the revenue to keep people on.

“All our employees that were laid off, they were either taken care of by, you know, COVID benefits, or they had other plans that they were able to accomplish,” Cottrell said.

Those who remained knew they needed to find new ways of bringing in money quickly. Their solution — takeout.

“We went really simple: fried chicken sandwich, french fries, little like steak fries, comfort food basically. You know everybody was really stressed out, so it was really like, let’s make a concept and theme out of this and still put effort into it,” Cottrell said.

And for some, comfort food during a time when many people didn’t know what was going to happen next, was just what the doctor ordered.

“We also did a lot of reheat stuff, you know, pasta bakes and things. Alot of things people can take home and then bake it home themselves, whenever they were hungry,” Cottrell said.

He said for five months of takeout, he wasn’t able to see the faces of his customers until the government announced restaurants could start allowing a few customers back inside businesses.

“But when they allowed us to have guest back in the building, it was a slower transition. Cause we established the takeout thing that was paying the bills, so we kept that along with reintroducing our concept to people,” Cottrell said.

Even though Machete was staying afloat, Cottrell said other businesses weren’t as lucky.

“It was really tough for a lot of places. We weren’t the only place that got hit. But it felt amazing to be able to go through what we wanted to do, even with the state of things after covid. Just because they opened restaurants doesn’t mean it was all magically better,” Cottrell said.

And he says the staff has been grateful for the customer support over the last three years, as Machete isn’t just surviving anymore — it’s thriving. Machete was named a James Beard semifinalist last February. They are in downtown Greensboro.

“That’s job security for everybody, it means that everybody here is safe, and COVID kind of created this scared pit in your stomach that, as like even when we were able to rehire a lot people and reopen, it’s like, when do we have to let them go again because we have to shut down or something like that,” Cottrell said.