Part of our continuing look at how Chicago area restaurants are coping during the coronavirus pandemic.
If any group of restaurants were equipped to handle a pandemic-fueled crisis like the one facing the world today, one might guess that Rick Bayless’ Frontera group might qualify.
Winner of multiple James Beard Foundation awards, recipient of Michelin-star designations, Bayless’ restaurants have been blessed with success, every new concept seemingly fully realized from its opening day and instantly popular.
When the first order shuttering restaurants came down in March, there wasn’t immediate panic.
“We paid our staff for the whole time; we just told them that we’d cover it,” Bayless said. “But then the two weeks turned into six, and we had to furlough everybody but management staff and some of our hourly workers. All of management started doing the hourly jobs, but because we promote from within, they all knew those jobs.”
The operation wasn’t smooth — Bayless said “nobody had the right moves” and “everybody bumped into each other” — but it held together. And outdoor dining was very successful, particularly for basement-level Bar Sotano, which created a patio in the alley behind Frontera Grill.
“We made a nice protected patio there, with piped-in music,” Bayless said. “I’m about atmosphere and service style. And when we got the street closure on Clark Street, we were able to expand our (Frontera Grill) patio.
“Remember, though, this happened after the first riots,” Bayless said. “So we opened, but nobody was coming downtown. People started to come back, and then we had another riot, and that really hurt downtown. But we had a really good September and most of October, and now we have a tent up (on Clark Street), though the city is adamant that we can’t have heat. Well, we can, but it has to be electrical, and no buildings around here can support that.”
And then came the second, and current, ban on indoor dining. December is just a week away, and even the rosiest hopes for winter weather leave little chance that tented dining can continue.
And so Bayless, like so many Chicago chefs, has turned, somewhat reluctantly, to carryout.
Frontera restaurants have dabbled in carryout before; Xoco, whose menu is heavy on sandwiches, soups and hot chocolate, has always done a brisk to-go business. But now carryout is offered at other properties, and earlier this month, Bayless launched Topolo At Home, a carryout version of his Michelin-starred Topolobampo. The Topolo At Home package consists of five courses, which the guest reheats, plates and enjoys at home.
It’s not what Bayless had in mind for Topolobampo, but there wasn’t much choice.
“When they stopped indoor dining the second time, we had to lay more people off — and for some of them, it was the third time we laid them off, and I’m not sure we’ll get them back,” he said. “I just said I wasn’t going to lose any more staff; we have to have something for them to do. Otherwise it’d be like opening a whole new restaurant (when things return to normal). It takes too long to train, especially at Topolo; that’s really high-level stuff.
“The hardest thing about all the to-go stuff is that I’ve preached for years and years that our experience is not about getting your belly full,” Bayless said. “(Guests) come to us because of that whole experience. How in the world do you pivot to to-go when I’m absolutely committed to presenting food in a certain way, to providing a certain style of service. You can’t put that in a box.”
And then Bayless made a surprising revelation.
“I’ve never ordered takeout in my life,” he said. “I’ve never ordered a pizza delivered to my door. And I’m a good reheater. But in the time I wait for food to be delivered, I can make a decent meal, though I know not everybody can. But it’s probably good that I’m not a takeout guy; I create takeout food from the perspective of what I would want.”
Bayless said his goal was to create a Topolobampo carryout that would remind customers of the dining room experience. To that end, Topolo At Home packages include a link to a playlist of Latin music — hand-picked by Bayless — to re-create the music that would play in the dining room. Video links provide detailed reheating and plating instructions, including how to make a swoosh of black beans to go alongside a rib-eye steak.
“It was so much fun to make the videos,” he said. “I kept saying, ‘I want to do this one.’ Not just because it was easy, but it was impressive-looking and fun. We worked hard to produce something that would be great for our guests — well, I guess not guests, because they’re not in our space — but customers.
“We tried to make a Topolo experience, without making it too hard, so they can be successful with it,” he said. “We tried to figure out plating that was doable. So far, everyone seems to be pleased with the end result; we haven’t gotten any notes from people saying it was a complete disaster.”
The approach is also being used at Frontera Grill, which has done carryout, and Bar Sotano, where carryout is being introduced.
“We carefully instruct people on reheating,” Bayless said. “At Topolo, we take that to the nth degree. But even for a simple steak taco, I tell exactly how to heat it up. I don’t know if you’re going to do that, but if you want that experience — which is not to serve cold food that looks like it’s been in a box for 30 minutes — we give you that opportunity.”
Bayless’ goal, he said, is to retain as many employees as possible so that when indoor dining finally returns, he’ll have an experienced team ready.
“If we get back to indoor, we can get back to break-even,” he said. “Even without that, I know people are looking more into carryout, so we’re putting a lot of effort behind to-go. What will travel well, what we can do to create excitement. Our Election Day package sold well; we didn’t know whether it would. Day of the Dead was the most successful; it really went out in great numbers, made us all feel really positive.”
Bayless also is partnering with Dwell Social to reach the suburbs, setting up pickup spots in suburban locations.
“We have to deliver and pass (packages) out,” he said, “which gives our front-house staff something we can hire them for.”
Carryout is more costly for Frontera restaurants, because the group is well-known for its commitment to environmental packaging.
“It can’t just be recyclable; for us, it has to be compostable,” he said, “though some things we have to put in aluminum containers, because they have to go into the oven. The (compostable packaging) is double the cost of most other carryout materials. Luckily, before we opened Xoco, we worked on environmentally sustainable to-go packaging, so we already had some of that stuff done.”
Not surprisingly, then, Xoco is the group’s most stable property in terms of carryout.
“We already had a huge following for takeout, and now it rocks along steadily,” Bayless said. “We’ve been able to hire back more staff than at any of the others. The (indoor) shutdown was really hard on Frontera Grill, because we were doing well. We hope to get some of that back with takeout. Bar Sotano, we’ve never done to-go there; now we’re trying to build that heavily.
“Topolobampo, we’ll see what we can do,” he said. “We made a commitment to pay the kitchen staff at least.”
