GENESEO, Illinois — With dine-in restaurants forced to stop their service in Illinois and Iowa, many are turning to carry out or curbside delivery.
Sweet Peas in Geneseo started their curbside delivery on Tuesday during the lunch hour. They’re serving up their traditional corned beef and cabbage for the holiday. Customers are still coming, but for 30 seconds tops at the curb.
“This is new, but I could get used to it,” says customer Chris Larson.
Head Chef Rick Humphrey says without dine-in customers he didn’t want to press his luck this holiday. He cut the beef in half this year and aims to serve close to 100 pounds instead.
“Right now, I got about a dozen orders ready to go,” Humphrey shouts out.
But owner Adam Minard says they’ve had hundreds of calls since Sunday; customers curious how and if they can get their corned beef fix.
“If we sell out that’s great too,” says Minard. “Because Saint Patrick’s Day – that’s not celebrated many other days beyond today, so I don’t want to have a lot of that leftover.”
Sweet Peas servers are not waiting tables; instead, they’re taking phone calls, bagging food, and bringing it out to customers.
“I told my staff today won’t be a good representation of how it will always be, because today is still a holiday still,” says Minard.
Sweet Peas says they will be doing curbside delivery with their regular menu for the next two weeks. They also say a tip is appreciated and will be pooled for servers who may struggle during this time.