Local restaurants are trying to adapt to the new normal while keeping their doors open and employees working.

Most restaurants in Nashville are now offering carry-out or delivery. Restaurants were not able to offer dine-in service due to executive orders from Gov. Eric Holcomb as a way to prevent spread of COVID-19, or the coronavirus.

But sometimes, offering carry-out only doesn’t help float a restaurant during uncertain economic times.

Last week, Big Woods restaurants closed three restaurants temporarily and laid off those workers — Hard Truth Hills in Nashville, along with their Bloomington and Franklin locations — because carry-out didn’t really take off, Jeff McCabe said last week. McCabe is a founding partner of BWQOHT, the parent company of Big Woods restaurants, Quaff ON! brewing company and Hard Truth Hills distillery.

The company’s other restaurants are still seeing enough demand to stay open, including two in Brown County: Big Woods Pizza in downtown Nashville, and a food truck that now sits in the Brown County IGA parking lot.

“It’s doing really well, it’s crazy,” McCabe said about the food truck. Along with restaurant favorites, the truck is also selling staples like toilet paper and packages of meat, like bulk chicken and frozen hamburger.

“It’s nice to be able to give people the reassurance that they’re not going to run out of toilet paper, and when they see these 1,000-foot rolls, they always get a big smile on their face,” he said.

Across all three companies, BWQOHT employs around 185 people in Brown County. The companies kept enough restaurant workers to staff the locations that are open, but around 130 in Brown County were laid off and instructed to file for unemployment.

“We paid them full pay whether they worked or not, so we got them started going into this thing on good footing,” McCabe said.

The hope is to bring those people back “sooner rather than later” if a federal coronavirus relief bill is passed and signed. In that bill, $377 billion would be set aside to help small businesses during this time.

“We’d like to keep people, but we also don’t want to have people coming to work … if there’s not work for them to do, and have them travel and be in an environment where they could potentially be sick,” McCabe said.

“The right thing, obviously, for people to do is for people to stay home, and if there was a program where they can stay on payroll, like a paid leave, we’re happy to do that, but with the uncertainty for their (legislators’) ability to act, and how long the pandemic will cause us to live in this environment here, we’re sheltering in place. We thought we were doing the right thing.”

The Original Big Woods restaurant on Molly’s Lane in Nashville was set to reopen following a remodel and menu upgrade this month, but that has now been postponed to see what happens with the pandemic. It’s ready to go whenever they’re cleared to open, though, McCabe said.

Last week, Hob Nob Corner restaurant owner Warren Cole was unsure how the governor’s order to have Hoosiers stay in their homes as much as possible would affect his restaurant.

The Hob Nob offering a limited carryout menu. “I wouldn’t say (offering carryout) is a great help. More business would be good,” he said.

Cole said business is “way down.” He first noticed a decline the week of March 16.

He also has had to lay off almost every employee over the age of 30, with just a couple people still working.

Hobnob is offering its breakfast menu for carry-out along with smaller lunch and dinner menus.

“For dinner, we’ll do the pot roast as long as I have some; salmon on demand, you have to call ahead for that. Chicken Mandarin, we’ve been doing. Chicken picante, we’ve been doing. Jambalaya, we’ve been doing, spinach lasagna, quiche, spaghetti,” Cole said.

As to how much longer Cole expects to be able to stay open, “Good question,” he answered. “… (We are going) day by day.”

After the governor’s stay-at-home order was issued, Brozinni Pizzeria owner Ryan Seward decided to start offering delivery throughout the county, along with carry-out.

“It’s helping us. We’re definitely down in our sales. The delivery has kind of made it better than it could have been, I guess,” he said.

Seward said pizzas, pasta and breadsticks are mostly being delivered to homes in the county, but if someone lives outside of the delivery area, drivers will meet people at places in the county, like Van Buren Elementary School. The full Brozinni menu is available for delivery.

“Basically, it helps keep more of our employees busy. That way, we don’t have to lay off a bunch of people,” he said.

So far, Seward has not had to lay off employees, but has had to cut the hours for some.

“I think, providing it doesn’t get too bad or worse, I don’t think it’ll be anything that will make us shut down,” he said.

Seward said even if his restaurant loses a little money each week, he prefers to stay open to serve food and employ people rather than shut down.

“We’re just trying to keep all of the employees busy and stay open, pretty much. We’ve had a pretty good response. The community has done a very good job of trying to keep restaurants busy. It seems like we’re getting a lot of support from the community,” he said.

“We’re definitely thankful.”

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The Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau has been compiling a list of restaurants offering carry-out. It can be viewed at browncounty.com/covid-19.

For those without internet access, we also ran the list in the March 25 issue of the Brown County Democrat (page A9), and some restaurants have chosen to run ads in this week’s paper.

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