With empty streets, some restaurants deal with broken windows and burglars, too
When he first found out that the front door of his downtown Durham coffee shop and jazz bar Beyu Caffe had been smashed in, Dorian Bolden admits he was angry. But then it became something else, something closer to pity, to sadness, maybe even a connection to whoever broke in, knowing that everyone right now is trying to find their way.
“There’s always a thing about being violated, having things damaged that are yours,” Bolden said. “But after this period of anger, there was a level of sadness. I don’t come from a silver spoon, so I understand the nature of it, this current economic situation, there’s a level of desperation and hard times. Some people are really struggling.”
With restaurants and bars closed because of the coronavirus, downtown Durham has seen a string of restaurant break-ins over the past week. Beyu Caffe has been in the heart of downtown Durham for the past decade. That someone felt emboldened to smash in the glass of a front door shows just how empty it is in the city center.
Bolden boarded up the door until it could be fixed.
Wine bar Bar Brunello and decades-old sandwich shop King’s also reported break-ins and broken windows on their social media accounts.
Bolden said the Beyu burglar was likely disappointed with their loot. With all business cashless right now, Bolden estimates there was less than $100 in the register.
“My heart goes out to that person and what they’re going through,” Bolden said. “They didn’t get much.”
This isn’t the first time Beyu has been broken into, Bolden said. In the shop’s first year of business, Beyu had a window busted in around Christmas. Bolden said he moved a couch to the middle of the restaurant and slept there until the next morning when the window could be fixed.
A decade in, Bolden said he’s a calmer business owner, but he and all other restaurant owners are facing one of the industry’s greatest tests ever. Bolden expects this moment, the wide-scale shutdown of the coronavirus pandemic, will shift restaurants.
“There’s COVID and post-COVID,” Bolden said. “The realest answer, the way I’m looking at this, it’s the same as when Uber took over taxi cabs, how Netflix put Blockbuster out of business. There will be a new way of life for so many of us.”
Since the shutdown, Beyu has been packing meals with Feed the Fight, a group of restaurants feeding hospital workers. Beyu is also working with a collaborative preparing meals for the students and parents of four Durham Title I elementary schools. All of that on top of what regular curbside business Beyu can do.
Bolden said innovation will be the key to surviving moving forward, that places may be open, but things won’t seem normal for a long time. Before the pandemic, Bolden said he was set to open two more Beyu Caffe locations. Now all of that is stalled and the future demands creativity, he said.
“I’m ready to be open here,” Bolden said. “At 40, I feel this entrepreneurial drive. We built this creative business, with live music and a cafe. Now it feels like, ‘Here we go again.’ It’s a new challenge of innovation, but it’s a more even playing field. Money isn’t necessarily the greatest competitive advantage. We have to keep our eyes open and get back to the drawing board.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 11:15 AM with the headline "With empty streets, some restaurants deal with broken windows and burglars, too."
