“We certainly missed all of our customers and we wanted to provide work for our employees,” co-owner Amy Klaiber said.
Including all full and part-time employees, the restaurant employed 46 people before Ohio’s mandatory dine-in service shutdown in mid-March. It now has a staff of 10.
“We have several employees who have been successful with unemployment and several employees who have not been successful,” said Klaiber. “That, in itself, has been a challenge.”
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The restaurant offered carry-out service for several days following the dine-in shutdown but opted to shut down entirely March 19 due to lack of demand, Klaiber said.
“At that time, it was very new,” she said. “We assembled anticipating greater carry-out sales and they just did not happen at that time.”
Hyde’s opened in August 1946 when brothers Jim and Lloyd “Hub” Hyde purchased an ice cream shop, then expanded in size and broadened its menu. Ownership passed to Hub Hyde’s son, Mick, and then to Mick’s daughters, Klaiber and Ashley Tuley.
Klaiber said it’s “humbling” to see how much support the restaurant garners from the community.
“Like anything, we have a hard time doing things different and we fumbled a little bit, I have to admit,” she said. “But at the same time I feel like we did a good job for our first time out. We tweaked our system a little bit more and we’re already kind of pivoting a little bit to make it better and better and better.”
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Specials through Sunday include hand-breaded cod (today), BBQ ribs and chicken platter (Saturday) and fried chicken (Sunday).
A single-serving special includes two sides and one piece of pie and costs $12.99. A Family Meal feeds four for $40 and includes four featured entrees, two 16-ounce containers for sides and four pieces of pie.
Available each day are the restaurant’s roast beef special, Hydewinders, soup beans, potatoes and ham, homestyle burgers, double deckers, grilled cheese, grilled ham and cheese, steak hoagie, Toni’s hoagie, chicken strip dinner, chef salad, BLT salad, and club Salad.
A new menu will be offered every week.
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Klaiber said the restaurant decided to include for carry-out service menu items that were not only popular, but could travel well and be reheated without an adverse effect.
Only pre-orders will be accepted for curbside service between 2 and 7 p.m. weekdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday. No walk-up service will be available.
Order curbside pick up for the next day by calling Hyde’s at 513-892-1287 between 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by sending a message with your phone number through Hyde’s Restaurant’s Facebook page. One of the eatery’s “virtual waitresses” will call to take your order.
An online ordering platform is in the works.
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