Coronavirus takes toll on local businesses

There are few things that haven’t been affected by the spread of the coronavirus, but there are fewer things being hit harder by the virus than local businesses.

Among the enterprises seeing dips are restaurants. Brian Desaulniers, who co-owns Windermere’s Dixie Cream Cafe with his wife, Stephanie, said the cafe is following the guidelines of social distancing and hand-washing but has noticed a decline in customers.

“First of all, just like any business, we’re going to take guidance from the three major entities — the feds, the state and the local (government) — and whatever they dictate is the direction we are going to move, and that includes the social distancing and the personal hygiene,” Brian Desaulniers said. “We can see (social distancing) right now in this restaurant. It’s thinned out quite a bit — our day is not like it was a week ago Sunday.”

While people are now less prone to go out and sit in a restaurant, Brian Desaulniers said there are no current plans to discontinue what they normally do. Instead, they’ll keep up with more sanitation while going a route that many restaurants have taken thus far. 

“We are marketing takeout — which we (already) have had, we’re just making a little more noise about it now,” Brian Desaulniers said.

The coronavirus isn’t just taking a toll on brick-and-mortar businesses — it’s significantly affecting small, individualized businesses like that of TK Photography.

Thomas Lightbody, who owns and operates the Winter Garden-based business, photographs a number of different subjects — including portraits, cheer competitions and West Orange High School sports. It’s the latter two, however, that have really taken a hit with schools being closed down and sports being shutdown, Lightbody said.

“Because I do competition cheerleading, I have had one event that is going to be canceled and then, of course, the perspective of the rest of my season being canceled,” Lightbody said. “I probably have five events left. If they cancel all of them, it’ll probably cost me about $7,000.”

“We can see (social distancing) right now in this restaurant. It’s thinned out quite a bit — our day is not like it was a week ago Sunday.”

— Brian Desaulniers, co-owner of Dixie Cream Cafe

There is a silver lining, though — portrait photos can still be done since they only involve one or two people, Lightbody said. 

Finding the upside is something the Garden Theatre in downtown Winter Garden is doing as well. Director of Patron Development Melissa Braillard is trying to stay positive. 

With the next production of “Matilda The Musical” not being until later next month — and with the government advisory of postponing events of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks — it’s giving the theater time to get better prepared, Braillard said.

“We’re lucky — Matilda wasn’t set to open until the end of April, so that’s really six weeks from now,” Braillard said. “So if we do need to postpone and back it up two more weeks, we’re going to continue to move forward.”

While preparations are underway for the next performance, Braillard also said the Garden Theatre will be taking every precaution to keep its staff, actors and stagehands safe. 

Right now the theater is looking at having non-essential staff work from home, while rehearsals and stage production would be done by small groups of only two to three people. There’s even discussion of using live streams to help with rehearsals.

By keeping the show process going, Braillard said the theater will be hopefully provide a place of entertainment when the dust of the pandemic settles.

“When it is safe to be in large groups again, we’re going to need entertainment more than ever,” Braillard said. “We are going to be there — the Garden Theatre is going to be there for our audience when it’s time.”