Zane Williams/Harvest
The dining room at Harvest will undergo a refresh/remodel as its utilities and kitchen equipment are also upgraded.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Tami Lax says of shepherding her two restaurants, Harvest and The Old Fashioned, through the ups and downs of the pandemic.
Harvest, a relatively small room normally devoted to fine dining, is currently closed after having been open as “Harvest Go” takeout-only for much of the pandemic. The kitchen and dining room of the restaurant need to be revamped, says Lax, and the redevelopment of some of the block has created an opportunity for some major utility upgrades.
At the start of the pandemic, Lax transitioned Harvest into Harvest Go, offering a limited menu of more takeout-friendly meals, but still not what folks might attempt to cook at home — favorites available for curbside pickup.
“Generally food sales get people in the door,” says Lax, “and we make profit from alcohol sales, but that was eliminated [for Harvest] during that whole time period. But Harvest Go kept us afloat and kept a decent number of people employed.”
Lax discontinued Harvest Go’s takeout program last May, but still did not reopen the dining room. Harvest’s sidewalk dining area was added to the outdoor cafe space at The Old Fashioned, next door, and diners can order some Harvest menu items through The Old Fashioned; three entrees per week are featured and Harvest cooks use Harvest’s kitchen to make them.
But Harvest, which has been in operation since 2000, is in “dire need” of utility and kitchen equipment upgrades, Lax says. Urban Land Interests’ “American Exchange” project in the same block of North Pinckney as Harvest means utilities to the block are being redone to supply that new building. (The Old Fashioned, located in a different building, had the upgrades when that restaurant opened.)
Lax says her landlord is in negotiation with ULI to “piggyback” the upgrades for Harvest’s building onto the rest. Construction will be running through the alley behind the restaurant. Lax thinks the landlord and ULI are close to an agreement, but even so, timing on the overall project is uncertain. She’s hoping to “get things rolling” within three to four months.
In addition to the utility upgrades, the dining room will get a refresh/remodel as well, with new lighting, banquettes and tables: “You think these things will last forever, but they don’t.”
Lax says that “with COVID-19, and Omicron, it’s been difficult to wrap my head around reopening Harvest and maintaining my presence and schedule at The Old Fashioned.” To add insult to injury, Harvest’s website was hacked, which is why a search for Harvest will end up only at Harvest Go: “I’m working on that as well.”
“It’s just all exhausting,” Lax says, echoing a common frustration with the ongoing pandemic and its attendant disruptions. “I want to go back to normal, but I wonder what that’s going to look like. I don’t think the restaurant industry is ever going back to what it was before the pandemic. Not for a long time.”
