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Local businesses navigate pandemic through innovation

By Rick Shrum, For The Greene County Messenger 5 min read
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Employees with DCG Supplies in Mount Braddock manufacture face masks that are being sold across the country. (Submitted photo)

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Submitted

Submitted

Brittney Roberts, an employee with DCG Supplies in Mount Braddock tests a mask manufactured at the Mount Braddock site.

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Courtesy of Pig and Fire House of Barbeque

Courtesy of Pig and Fire House of Barbeque

Owners Matt and Susanne Sager are pleased with how the transition to Pig and Fire House of Barbeque has gone.

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Courtesy of Sara Von Scio

Courtesy of Sara Von Scio

In this file photo from October, Heritage Craft Butchers co-owner Bob Von Scio is shown in the company’s downtown Washington distribution/storage location.

Susanne Sager and her husband, Matt, were taking care of business. For more than a decade, they had owned and operated Palazzo’s 1837 Ristorante, a fine-dining location along Washington Road in North Strabane Township.

Then last spring, COVID-19 intervened, stirring vats of turmoil at restaurants across Pennsylvania. In an effort to mitigate spread, Gov. Tom Wolf shut down “non-essential businesses” across the state, including indoor dining. Palazzo’s, like most of its industry peers, strove to persevere, offering takeout and outdoor dining, but ultimately suffered.

“By the middle of April, we were hemorrhaging,” Susanne said. “Takeout was not even paying the bills. We thought we’d have to close our doors by the end of April. I was crying every day, having panic attacks.”

Things changed a few weeks later.

The Sagers had a small smoker with which they prepared barbecue dishes for family and friends. In mid-May, Matt suggested they set up a popup barbecue operation, takeout only. He and Palazzo’s chef, Kevin Castellucci, know barbecue and gave it a shot.

They ordered 60 racks of ribs for the first weekend and sold out on Friday. “We replenished our stock and sold out again on Saturday,” Susanne said. “We thought we’d try again the next weekend and we kept selling out.

“We decided at the end of May that maybe we’ll switch to barbecue.”

Exit Palazzo’s, and Italian cuisine; enter Pig and Fire House of Barbeque.

“We are not only surviving, we’re thriving,” Susanne said. “It was an easy transition, and we’re very happy with the change. Don’t get me wrong, we miss Palazzo’s, but people prefer ‘Pig.’

One year after the pandemic initially struck Southwestern Pennsylvania, businesses are still employing methods of operation they instituted during the outbreak for safety reasons. They have displayed ingenuity throughout, from having employees working at home to Zoom meetings to e-medicine.

For the food-service industry, it has meant ordering online, takeout, delivery, outdoor dining and limited gatherings inside. For others, it has been change in operations to survive and, perhaps, boost the bottom line.

Community outreach has been part of the equation as well.

Early in the pandemic, distilleries in the area like Ridge Runner in Chalk Hill made hand sanitizer from high-proof grain alcohol for hospitals, first responders and others in need.

And Berkley Medical Resources in Smithfield produced sanitizing supplies while Berkley Surgical Corp., in Uniontown made disposable medical supplies to help fight the virus.

A morning brainstorm got Fayette Pipe Co. starting making masks.

“Really, I just woke up one morning and had an idea to get into the mask business,” Chris Gearing said in June.

Gearing is the vice president of Fayette Pipe Co., Specialty Conduit and Manufacturing and DCG Supplies, all in Mount Braddock.

Family members were working in the health field, so Gearing was aware there was a need for protective masks. No one inside his workplace knew how to make them, but Gearing decided to forge onward in an unoccupied space.

He had a mask-manufacturing machine shipped from China. Instructions were written in Chinese, though, so workers had to use a Google Translate app on their phones to find out how to operate the machine.

Eventually, they were able to produce 18,000 masks every 10 hours. The masks were sold to businesses at a small price and donated to first-responders, health care organizations, human service agencies and other nonprofits located in or serving Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

Heritage Craft Butchers has remained a cut above despite making pervasive changes.

“Last Jan. 20, if you said this would be how (2020) would end up, I’d say that’s not our business. But it has worked out,” said Bob Von Scio, co-owner with Jared White.

The partners opened a distribution facility/store in Washington in September, to go with a similar existing space in Waynesburg for their operation. They specialize in craft meats and charcuterie items, and cut, cure, prepare and sell meat selections.

They entered 2020 planning numerous events, including hands-on butchering and meat-related clinics that would draw and engage groups for two hours.

“We had something going on every day,” Von Scio said. “Then about March 1, it was apparent that doing that was not going to work. You couldn’t bring disparate groups into rooms.”

Events were canceled.

Von Scio, his wife, Sara, and White responded with innovation. They came up with monthly Butcher Bags and weekly Essentials Bags filled with meats and other items – bundling staple items that began with a meat product – chicken breasts, ground beef or steaks, perhaps.

For a few months, they distributed the bags for pickup, then did so when the farmers market season kicked off there in the spring.

“We’ve learned a lot,” Von Scio said. “Last year wasn’t a gold rush, but it was very gratifying because were selling quickly. I don’t want to be known for not having things.”

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