CLEVELAND — Businesses all over Northeast Ohio are adapting to survive after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the shutdown of the state in March. Felice Urban Café in Cleveland is one of them.
“You have to be able to change your business plan on a week to week basis, and Covid's not going anywhere anytime soon," said General Manager Michael Murtaugh.
To start with, the staff kept in touch with customers and found out what they wanted and needed. The answer was pretty clear, their lives were changing, so the restaurant had to change too. “A lot of them have to take on being teachers as well as working their jobs from home,“ says Murtaugh.
That’s why the restaurant began offering home-style meals that can feed everyone at once. “Everything we try and do is stuff that could appeal to a wide range of people you have to please in your family,” says Murtaugh.
The shift presented a new challenge for executive chef Jose Coronado. "It changed a little for everybody,” he says. “Because you have to reinvent yourself make it a little bit more of comfort food for people."
Coronado set about making the menu, with a little inspiration from outside the restaurant. "These recipes we are what we like to eat at home. that's why we make comfort food because we have made that for my kids at home."
The family-style meals are made to feed six people and include everything from ribs to chicken dishes. The restaurant also offers special dietary options like vegan and gluten-free.
The restaurant reopens its dining room on June 11. The family-style takeout has been so successful, it’s sticking around, too.
