Ogden Newspapers

From a 73-year-old saloon to a brand-new pet care facility, small businesses across the country are feeling the pressure and loss of income that come with the orders to shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What should be an exciting time of year for many has become a whirlwind of daily stress about an unknown future.

Julie Arthur had been working seven days a week at the Rainbow Saloon in Roy, Utah, which she has owned since 1998. But when she shut her doors on March 18 because of the state’s stay-at-home orders, she bid her loyal customers, whom she called “a family,” goodbye for now.

Since then, two of her customers have committed suicide, she said. She’s worried about the rest of them, as they came to the bar daily because, as she put it, “they had nowhere to go.”

“I’ve cried every single solitary day” since closing her doors to the public, Arthur said last week.

She said her customers, ranging in ages from 21 to 90, come to the Rainbow Saloon “to celebrate, to grieve, to escape reality for a minute, unwind after work, to relax … It is like ‘Cheers.’ A lot of people that come in don’t even drink. They come for the companionship. A lot of people don’t have family and we are their family.”

Arthur and her husband, Terry Strickland, met while working at the bar together prior to buying it in 1998, and she knows many others who met their spouses there. On an average Thursday, Friday or Saturday, about 100 to 125 customers came in per day, Arthur estimated.

Sometimes, the most unlikely person would come in, just needing a listening ear.

“I had an elderly gentleman several years ago that went and sat by himself upstairs and ordered a Coke,” Arthur said. “Every time I went to check on him, he was extremely rude. After about an hour, he started to cry and said he had just lost his wife and had nowhere to go. I sat and cried with him.”

Now those lonely people may not have anyone to lean on.

Add that stress to the fact that she has lost income for the past month, and she has no idea how she will pay the bills. Monthly rent for the saloon is $3,000, and the power bill is typically at least $1,000 per month. She is still awaiting her family’s stimulus checks, but she said she owes taxes so all that money will go toward paying taxes and bills.

“It’s just been so stressful,” Arthur said. “We’re a small business, so we just kind of lived day to day before then. It’s not like we’re well-off or anything.”

She said the unknown is scary right now, since she and her husband and daughter, Brittni Strickland, all work at the Rainbow Saloon, so they do not currently have any source of income.

“And this typically is our busiest time of year,” Arthur explained. “St. Patrick’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year, and then, you know, your patio is open and people are getting out in the spring, so this is one of the times of the year where you look forward to that extra income to help make it through the rest of the year.”

Arthur is trying to stay afloat by offering meals for curbside pickup, but her grill and kitchen are not set up for large orders, so she has not been able to offer quick service.

“We’re trying to do takeout,” she said. “The problem is our fryer is a two-basket fryer and our grill is maybe 2 feet by 2 feet, so we’re just not designed that way. People are calling, but then there’s like a two-hour wait for steak, and people don’t want to wait that long.”

The saloon is a sit-down restaurant designed to be a place to relax and enjoy a drink while the food is being cooked, she said before adding that the majority of their income comes from tips, but many people do not tip on to-go orders.

The Rainbow Saloon has been in business since 1947, and Arthur hopes it will continue to be open after the pandemic. But, of course, nothing is certain.

“There’s a lot of restaurant grants out there,” she said. “I’ve applied for everything possible that I can, so I keep hoping.”

She had five employees before the shutdown, and now she is down to one part-time employee. One of her dedicated employees is autistic, and his routine has now been turned upside-down, so she worries about him, too.

“He’s worked for us for seven years, and he rides his bike six-and-a-half miles each way, seven days a week,” Arthur said. “In seven years, he’s never missed a day of work. When we said we had to close, he was sobbing.”

She said on top of the business’s financial struggles, she wants to help others. The Rainbow Saloon commonly helps the community with fundraisers, but the current situation makes it impossible to continue that contribution.

“I don’t know how to solve this one,” she said.