Best Of winners 2021: On the road to recovery
Following a year of uncertainty, hope is finally on the horizon as businesses reopen and slowly inch closer to pre-pandemic normalcy. To show appreciation for the local business community, readers once again cast votes for their favorite places to eat, shop, work out or spend time with family and friends for the Voice's annual Best Of Mountain View edition after a hiatus in 2020.
The Voice recently surveyed this year's Best Of winners to see how they are doing in 2021 since California officially reopened on June 15, signaling a small but significant shift toward recovery. Read on to see what they had to say. All responses have been edited for length and clarity.
"We don't have any outdoor seating so we could only offer to-go and delivery service for most of the last 15 months. Because of that, we lost most of our staff. Six staff members are all who remain for now."
Fiesta Del Mar Too,
Best Mexican Food
"Learning how to move our in-store events online was challenging. We typically do about 300 in-store events a year."
East West Bookshop,
Best store for Unusual Gifts
"The lockdown meant we lost the thing that matters most to us: our customers coming to eat at our tables. This meant lost revenues and job insecurity for our team. But more than this, the pandemic engulfed us with uncertainty. There was no path to normalcy that we could see and follow, and everything changed week to week."
Zareen's,
Best Indian Restaurant
"Our business was totally shut down for nine months, and we had to work at less than half capacity for another six months. More important than finding ways to pay the bills, the biggest challenge was making sure our team members were OK and got their unemployment as soon as possible"
Essence Salon,
Best Hair Salon
"The cost of food and the labor market have been more challenging during the pandemic. We are so lucky … we have not had to shut down a single day during the pandemic, but I have not been able to find staff to reopen our dine-in service."
Cooking Papa,
Best Takeout, Chinese Restaurant
"I shifted to a mobile practice model in 2019 just before the pandemic. In the beginning of the lockdown, people were unsure, but after a few weeks of working from home in less than ideal setups, people were grateful that they could get the care they needed as I could come to them.
Lisa Devlin DC CCSP,
Best Chiropractor
"The biggest challenge we faced during the pandemic was laying off employees. We worked for many years to get to where we are with our business, but the pandemic and lockdowns made us take some steps back."
La Fontaine,
Best Italian Restaurant, Fine Dining, Patio/Outdoor Dining, Place for a Business Lunch
"The biggest challenge was simply adjusting to a new way of life. Everything took longer, everything was more arduous, and we had to learn new methods for doing things. ... And the whole cleaning thing that was happening when we didn't know for sure how germs were spreading. We were cleaning everything all the time, washing our hands all the time and using hand sanitizer all the time. … Staying away from each other is hard to do in a bookstore when you were always in close proximity to each other."
Cheenie Durham, manager Books Inc.,
Best Bookstore
"For sure -- the way fellow restaurant and small business owners banded together, and with our cities and communities, to look out for each other and share best practices."
The Counter,
Best Burger
"So many! Our GoFundMe effort gave us encouraging reminders from customers past and present. Most encouraging of all was our anonymous purchase in November 2020. Someone felt Red Rock is worth rescuing and preserving for years to come. It makes me feel that … the effort put into caffeine, culture and community is spot on."
Red Rock Coffee Company,
Best Coffee House
"Pre-pandemic, we would sell a few gift cards each month. When we first went into lockdown and business plummeted, we noticed something unusual: We suddenly were selling hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards each day … It was simply the local community -- our neighbors and well wishers - - supporting us. Their love and kindness saw us through the worst of times. More than the much-needed financial help, it gave us the belief that we will be fine. Our community will not let us be broken."
Zareen's,
Best Indian Restaurant
"A customer came to our store to place a takeout order and told us how happy she was that we were staying open: During COVID-19, her three children had to stay at home, and she just didn't have time to cook every day."
Cooking Papa,
Best Takeout, Chinese Restaurant
"We often saw tears of gratitude from people that we were open, that we were surviving, that we were thriving. We also were grateful for the federal government grants and all the local government and community efforts to reach out and help businesses and individuals. We were not alone. That spirit of 'we're in this together' was very moving for us.'
East West Bookshop,
Best store for Unusual Gifts
"We lost most of our wholesale business, and the commitment from our local community kept us afloat! The support was truly humbling."
The Midwife & The Baker,
Best Bakery
"The moment that inspired and motivated us this year was the release of the vaccines. It meant that our customers would slowly come back to our restaurant."
La Fontaine,
Best Italian Restaurant, Fine Dining, Patio/Outdoor Dining, Place for a Business Lunch
Yes, we introduced contactless and mobile-based ordering and payment systems, which were very well received, and we will be rolling it out to all of our locations this year."
The Counter,
Best Burger
"We now have an outdoor fitness center that we will keep open. We learned that people love having the option of indoor and outdoor workouts."
Oshman Family JCC,
Best Gym, Fitness Classes
"We have an open loop ventilation system that changes out the entire volume of salon air in less than three minutes, among the several innovations sparked by the pandemic that will remain. "
Essence Salon,
Best Hair Salon
"We now have online ordering for takeout. We also updated our second-floor business model: Customers now order from a server through an OrderPad, and get drinks delivered up to the second floor."
Red Rock Coffee,
Best Coffee House
"Beginning soon, we will provide drive-thru estimates."
Bedford Autobody,
Best Auto Body Repair
"There is a big difference between takeout and dine-in. Dine-in dishes are served immediately to customers right after the food is cooked, and customers can enjoy it right away. Takeout dishes take longer to get to customers, and we need to enhance our packaging standards for hot soup, cold drinks, driver pickup flow and a lot more. Therefore, we have adjusted our dishes and packaging plates arrangement."
Cooking Papa,
Best Takeout, Chinese Restaurant
"We have struggled, and didn't know on any given day whether we would be here. It is still very unclear, and as the 'normalcy' becomes more widespread, we have to build our business from the beginning. We came from having 30 classes a week to five. So any support, especially now, is essential."
Yoga is Youthfulness,
Best Yoga Studio
"It is still incredibly tough for restaurants: Just as we start to recover economically, we have been hit with an extreme labor shortage. We request customers to understand that our staff is shorthanded and so things will be less than perfect."
Zareen's,
Best Indian Restaurant
"Everyone has handled this pandemic in their own way, and that's OK. We are trying to be patient and observant during this phase while customers and crew alike adjust to a fully functioning restaurant again. Everyone has had to accommodate a lot of changes over the last 15 months, we are giving them time and grace to reemerge at their own pace."
Hobee's,
Best Breakfast/Brunch
"We are still in recovery mode, both financially and from the people perspective. Please patronize all small businesses and be kind to the hospitality workers who have had a rough go of it."
The Counter,
Best Burger
"Please show patience, kindness, and grace for other customers and for all staff. Be nice."
Red Rock Coffee,
Best Coffee House
"Appreciate businesses that have survived and kept their doors open during these difficult times."
Bedford Autobody,
Best Auto Body Repair
"Local businesses need support. I've been serving the community since 1993, and as I drive around Mountain View, I see so many businesses struggling or just gone. Personally I don't use Amazon -- I try to shop local small businesses as much as possible."
Lisa Devlin DC CCSP,
Best Chiropractor
"It is like night and day. We want to thank our customers for their continued patience, cooperation and support."
Kevin's Auto Repair Inc.,
Best Auto Repair
"If we are talking about sales, we took a big hit -- no sugar coating that fact. If we are talking spirit, ingenuity, hope, pride, strength, I couldn't be prouder of our team. They have risen above every challenge, created ways of dealing with obstacles, taken care of each other and provided Hobee's famous hospitality to our customers despite masks and serving in parking lots with restrictions. … So many people are in our corner, buying gift cards, ordering takeout, expressing concern for crew members staying safe and keeping their jobs and wanting us to make it though. That is the silver lining, that is what we fought for every day: the livelihoods for our team and our place and purpose in the community."
Hobees,
Best Breakfast/Brunch
"There is hope."
Yoga is Youthfulness,
Best Yoga Studio
"Better, but still a ways to go to get back to normal."
The Counter,
Best Burger
"It has been much less chaotic and more predictable."
Oshman Family JCC,
Best Gym, Fitness Classes
"The first half of 2021 has been so much better than 2020 as life returns slowly to normal and our community finally returns to our tables. If not a return to full normalcy, there is the return of hope to our stoves and tandoors. For the first time in months, we can exhale our anxious, suspended breaths and get back to hosting our patrons with a grateful smile."
Zareen's,
Best Indian Restaurant
"We're busier than we've ever been. Our staff took last year to cross-train, and as a result, we've seen incredible efficiencies this year."
The Midwife & The Baker,
Best Bakery
"It looks amazing. We are really doing fairly well at this point. It's a struggle in the book business. It always has been. But people have realized the value of books and being able to come to their local independent bookstore. Also during this time, I think they've realized, again, the importance in shopping locally. People have realized that they do want to be able to go out into their community."
Books Inc.
Best Bookstore
