Public Fish & Oyster owner reflects on business during a pandemic

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Roughly one year ago, the owner of Public Fish & Oyster had to layoff all of its employees and temporarily shutdown. Since then, the business says it has worked to pivot and keep its doors open with the help of loans, a supportive community, and business model changes.

“This is my life’s work, and to think it was in a position where I could lose everything for something I had zero control over was really an awful feeling,” owner Daniel Kaufman said.

All of Public Fish & Oyster’s employees were laid off at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic back in March 2020, and doors had to close.

“We lost some people who have been here for a very long time and it was a pretty terrible feeling,” Kaufman said.

The owner says he was able to partially reopen for business thanks to PPP loans and a new takeout model.

“Even when we were able to open for some partial dine-in, we were doing a fraction of what we were doing before,” Kaufman said.

A year later, Kaufman is constantly pivoting the business to make ends meet. He says his restaurant is not out of the woods just yet.

“We’ve limped by. We’re all tired of limping, though, that’s where we are right now. I don’t know that we can do this forever,” he said.

Kaufman is hopeful his business can return to normal by the summertime, but until then he urges restaurant-goers to continue ordering locally.

“I would encourage everyone to go to the businesses themselves, go to the businesses websites, try to order pickup, try to order their own delivery service. Leave anything they can for us because we need it right now,” Kaufman said.

He also says businesses by the University of Virginia Corner are taking a huge hit because of the pandemic: “Corner restaurants really need a lot of support,” Kaufman said. “While the students are back right now, until we get to summer I would encourage everyone to support those restaurants as much as possible.”

Kaufman says this has been the hardest year of his life, but says he can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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