Everyone had to make changes to endure the coronavirus, but restaurant owners certainly have faced a good deal of ups and downs while coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, three restaurant owners were featured guests of the Small Business Development Center at Jamestown Community College’s Women In Networking program. The restaurant owners included Pati Centi, The Landmark and The Watermark owner; Diana Scott, Studio D Catering owner; and Peggy Kaltenmeier, Forte owner; who discussed operating a business during the pandemic.

“March 17 (2020), everything just stopped,” Centi said. “For all of us, it was just devastating.”

Centi said for the first time at The Landmark, 516 W. Fourth St., Jamestown, she started to-go orders.

“We had to reinvent, slim down the menu,” she said.

Fortunately, Centi said people still wanted to eat out during the pandemic, which helped business at The Watermark, located at 188 S. Erie St., Mayville. She said they increased the seating available at the lake side restaurant to serve more customers. Currently, The Landmark is open Wednesday through Saturday, and will be open this Sunday only for Valentine’s Day. She said The Watermark is closed, but will reopen this spring.

“As long as you keep you heart going, your business will stay strong,” she said.

Kaltenmeier said Forte’s experience was similar to The Landmark and The Watermark as she had to adapt to the ever-changing landscape that brought adjustments on a daily basis.

“There has been a lot of ups and downs in the last year,” she said.

Because of the capacity limitations inside the restaurant, Kaltenmeier said she had to shutdown Forte, located at 144 E. Third St., Jamestown, because they were only serving six tables, which wasn’t enough to keep the restaurant in business. She said even when the restaurant went to a decreased menu and only did to-go orders, it still wasn’t enough to keep the restaurant open regularly a viable option.

“Forte is about an experience,” she said. “We need all pistons firing in order to be successful.”

Following the closing, Kaltenmeier said they started to do “pop-up” events with a different menu item for each time. She said the pop-up events have been successful to the point that in January she started doing them regularly each Friday evening. She added that this week because of Valentine’s Day, the pop-up event will be Saturday.

“We started to take advantage of there being no outside dining,” she said about the pop-up events during the winter. “We wanted to offer more for our regulars and for our fans.”

Kaltenmeier said she will continue to cope with the challenges of operating a restaurant until things can return to pre-pandemic conditions.

“For me, providing to the community is of the utmost importance,” she said. “Sharing something I love is really important, even if it’s at a diminished capacity. It’s still something. It’s feeding my passion.”

Scott said she had to be creative when the pandemic started because she had 18 wedding receptions postponed or canceled.

“I had to start thinking, ‘What can I do,”’ she said.

At first, Scott said she did small parties outside at private residences beside Chautauqua Lake. However, when she was only serving 8-10 people, she wasn’t making any money. Then she remembered an old idea of hers to start operating a food truck.

“I had put (that idea) on the back burner, but it was time to bring it back out again,” she said.

Even though it was a lengthy process to get the necessary approvals from the city of Jamestown to start serving from a food truck, Scott said her new business, which was only open for about a month, was successful.

“It was great,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to bringing (the food truck) out again.”

Currently, Scott said she is doing catering at the DoubleTree by Hilton Jamestown and private dinners for two at her brick and mortar business, located at 106 E. Second St., Jamestown. She said the private dinners have been busy this week with Valentine’s Day approaching. She said there is no contact between her and the dinner guest, who can arrive to find their meal ready and can leave when they’re done.

“We’re all kind of playing it day-to-day,” she said about how all restaurant owners have had to adapt to the new reality during the pandemic. “I’m willing to change, willing to roll with the punches, willing to think outside of the box and willing to work together.”