Opening During a Pandemic: Chef Dont’e Shaw and Abigail Emmons Share Their Experiences

I remember the cocktail of excitement and hesitation I felt standing outside The Ragamuffin on opening day, one of a line of eager customers stretching from the door halfway to Western Avenue, everyone perfectly spaced six feet apart. It was a sunny morning in May of 2020, and with the exception of the grocery store, this was the most human interaction I had experienced in weeks. The joy of something good happening in the midst of such loss was palpable.

Several weeks earlier, pulling into the parking lot at Bantam Chicken & Seafood, we popped the trunk of our cherry red sedan and called the restaurant to let them know we arrived. Two orders of The Reiff packaged in red-and-white checkered boxes were dropped in our trunk by a masked figure, and we were swiftly on our way. 

The year prior was one of countless pop-ups in South Bend, and the idea that some of our favorite concepts were becoming permanent establishments was exciting, however no one anticipated the circumstances under which they would open.

Launching a food or beverage business any time is riddled with challenges, and the spring of 2020 was likely the most inopportune time to do so when lockdowns, uncertainty, ever-changing guidelines and restrictions affected the industry so significantly. In our city of South Bend, there were bakers and chefs with ambitious plans for opening who were forced to face the question, is it worth the risk to move forward?”

Plans for The Ragamuffin Bakery + Coffee were already well underway for Abby (Gillan) Emmons in March of 2020. Her lease had been signed months ago for the small storefront on the main floor of The Hibberd, and the buildout was nearly complete. She had been selling wholesome baked goods inspired by her grandmother’s recipes as a pop-up shop or stall at the farmer’s market, but now her dream of opening her own bakery that took root when she was 12 years old seemed like it could fall through her fingers.

Similarly, Chef Dont’e Shaw’s concept Bantam Chicken & Seafood was nearing the finish line to open as an upscale southern comfort food restaurant on South Bend Avenue. Bantam had made its debut as an evening pop-up inside L Street Kitchen’s space, and after a stint as the head chef of LaSalle Kitchen and Tavern, Dont’e was eager to open his very own location. However in March, some of Bantam’s financial partners decided it was no longer worth the risk and backed out, jeopardizing the planned buildout of the space.

But for Dont’e, giving up was not an option. “I come from poverty,” he shared with me last week. “I come from not having a lot. People who live in poverty have a mindset to deal with stress like that. I’ve been in worse conditions and worse situations so I know how to maneuver around it. I don’t have a mindset of failing.”

Bantam’s launch was quiet and unassuming, not the experience an emerging chef would hope to have for their restaurant’s grand opening. “We only did takeout for a while. It was a small menu, just me and two other people working and we were basically grinding,” Dont’e shared.

When The Ragamuffin initially opened, Abby didn’t anticipate the tidal wave of business that came through, and it was all riding on her. One of her workers was stranded on the West coast, and the other at home with a high-risk family member, so in order to survive, Abby’s hope was to sell out by mid-morning so that she would have the time to begin production for the following day.

But the toughest thing to navigate was how to serve customers in a safe and responsible way. Most customers appreciated the guidelines, but Abby and her staff experienced a fair share of aggressive customers who were unwilling to comply. “There were a lot of breaking points,” Abby shared, “Everyone in the food or hospitality business dealt with it.”

The bakery celebrated its second birthday this May, and for Abby it feels like she is finally reaching a secure and consistent pace, instead of purely surviving. “There is nothing to report. And that is the best thing to report.”

Looking back over Bantam’s first two years, Dont’e wouldn’t have done anything differently. “What happened made me more intelligent and allowed me to figure out how to do things. I took it all as experience. It’s like a journey. If I didn’t go through what I went through, I wouldn’t be at a place of knowing how to maneuver future concepts.”

The Ragamuffin and Bantam are just two of many exciting new concepts to open in South Bend during a pandemic. When you enjoy a meal with friends, pick up a treat, or order takeout, your experience it is built upon the grit and determination of the people who showed up every day for the past two years and risked everything—their health, safety, financial security, and sanity—to share their craft with us.

All of these obstacles should have meant the death of the South Bend food and beverage scene, but somehow we’re seeing new life.

Images by Jacob Titus. Originally published on West.SB.