Kapampangan resto owner, partners bounce back from COVID-19 while helping front-liners

With the help of a private donor, Scorched Smokehouse will serve meals to health workers fighting the pandemic. (Contributed photo)

A businessman from Pampanga province has been beating the odds to thrive despite the ongoing pandemic.

Edwin Costes, co-owner of Scorched Smokehouse, said their restaurant in Metro Manila was forced to close last year at the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in the country.

The restaurant serves dishes that feature flavored smoked meat slowly cooked for over 12 hours in an oven with hickory wood chips.

It was envisioned to be the first fast-food chain in the country to sell southern American-style smoked meats.

Since the restaurant is located near the University of Sto. Tomas campus and the pandemic prompted the long-term cancellation of classes, Costes and his business partner Lenny Kaw said they had no choice but to temporarily stop operating.

During the first week of May last year, the business partners and their colleagues reopened the business to help their staff have a source of income even if the stake was high.

“We opened just to obtain a break-even revenue since we set up this company last year, not for profit, but to provide employment. Our goal is also to offer nutritious food to those who would patronize us,” Kaw told the Inquirer.

She said they even found opportunities amid the challenges posed by the health crisis by turning to their network of friends and by selling online.

“And true enough, when we reopened, we were able to get some customers who would buy food from us that they donate, especially to health workers,” Kaw said.

According to Kaw, they subsidized, with the help of private donors, all the meals ordered for the health workers, which, in turn, became the company’s way of helping those in the front-line battling the pandemic.

“Believing that there is opportunity even during these difficult periods in our lifetime, the company will open their second branch soon at SM Hypermarket Las Pinas this March,” Kaw said.

The duo said they would also put up another branch in Costes’ home province, with the hope that their dishes would be appreciated by his fellow Kapampangan. INQ

LZB