Scott Inlow, general manager of the Dingle House, said he considered the Dingle lucky to be here after last year’s two-month lockdown that included canceling its St. Paddy’s celebration.
“We typically do 50 grand on that day alone,” he said. “Whereas a busy Friday night might be $8,000 to $10,000. March is generally a big month because that’s when the weather starts to break. The Shamrock Shuffle begins and ends in our front yard; that’s 2,000 to 5,000 people. We hoped to maybe do St. Patrick’s Day in September (2020), hoping we’d be out of the woods by then.”
Lenny and Mary Cittadino own the Olde Village Tavern and the Hangar Bar and Grill. Lenny affirmed the Tavern is 50 to 60 percent busier on St. Pat’s than on any other day of the year. Lenny and Mary both held other full-time jobs, so despite the lockdown’s open-ended timeline, they remained confident in the future and put their energy into remodeling the tavern, ditching the pool table so tables could be socially distanced, and staying in touch with their employees, who suddenly had no income at all.
“When the lockdown first happened, we gave (the staff) all the food we had (at the tavern),” Lenny said. “We thought unemployment would be fast-tracked, but then time went on, and some people hadn’t received anything. We let them borrow money as needed, we had weekly chats and get-togethers. Some were able to find work they could do from home.”
Inlow said the Dingle spent the lockdown doing carryout with a skeleton crew of management and a few cooks, but obviously no servers and bartenders.
“They were freaked out,” Inlow said. “Especially since the unemployment site kept crashing. They were worried about their rent and groceries ... we gave them the food we had and treated them to lunch when they came in.”
Inlow credited the Dingle’s regulars for supporting them through the lockdown by consistently ordering carryout, but that still only amounted to a few hundred dollars per day.
“We came very close to closing,” he said. “We’d taken pay cuts and were having conversations about how long we could do this. We got our PPP loan just in time.”
When the economy partially re-opened in mid-May, things were looking up again for the Cittadinos. Unusual for restaurant owners at that time, they actually closed on a second establishment, the Hangar Bar and Grille, in July.
“(The previous owner) was moving to Florida, and the price was right,” Lenny said. “It didn’t cost us anything out of pocket.”
Then the 10 p.m. curfew hit.
“That was devastating for the tavern,” Lenny said. “We’re a late-night bar. We were letting people call in drinks just before 10 p.m. so they could have an hour to drink them. There was a 40 percent drop in sales because we lost the industry crowd (servers and bartenders from other restaurants) because we were all closing at the same time.”
Inlow said things were looking up for the Dingle as well when the economy re-opened, back up to 80 to 90 percent of their usual sales by mid-summer until the curfew hit.
“West Chester let us extend our patio for social distancing,” he said. “The fall was rougher with the curfew. Late night is the nucleus of our crowd, so some people got very efficient with their drinking by coming in earlier. Some people are still scared to come out. We do what we can by not seating certain tables and wiping things down whenever we can. It’s tough because it’s literally a hands-on industry.”
As the Cittadinos prepare for St. Patrick’s Day 2021, Lenny said sales had been decent but not great, that they’ve gained customers but lost some of the older crowd due to continuing COVID-19 fear. But he’s optimistic about the future, perhaps starting with throwing a St. Pat’s party again. Plans are tentative at this point.
“We’ll probably have bus service between the Tavern and the Hangar,” he said. “We’ll have steak and eggs at 9 a.m. Budweiser might rent us a trailer so we have taps outside. We’ll have food specials — corn beef and cabbage, Irish stew, shepherd’s pie, Reubens, egg rolls — all under $10.” They’re also planning several drink specials, and “we’ll have green beer in cans, but not on tap because it doesn’t sell that much.”
To accommodate COVID, Lenny said they’re looking into sectioning off the back parking lot and will encourage people to wear masks.
As for the Dingle, Inlow said he’s encouraged by the conversations he’s had with West Chester and the state of Ohio regarding St. Pat’s.
“We want to expand out into the street, put beer tents and booths in the roundabout, and it sounds like we’ll be able to do it,” he said. “We’re thinking about taking people’s temperatures at the door. We’ll have kegs and eggs from 8 to 11 a.m., and then a short menu after that. Live entertainment starts at noon, with bagpipes and Celtic dancers. We’ll have drink specials and green Bud Light, where we add food coloring to the beer after pouring instead of into the keg because it stains the beer lines.”
Normally, the Dingle has tubs of beer inside on St. Pat’s. Those will be moved outside if they have them at all, along with possibly a grill for burgers and a hot dog station. In any case, Inlow is grateful for the outdoor options.
“We can’t have five people deep at the bar anymore, and everyone will need to be seated at a table,” he said, then paused. “I don’t know how we’re going to police that.”
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