A New Kind of Revival, Eastside Style
Revival Eastside Eatery: City Growth Solid Gold Neighbor
Jeremy Vickers, Associate Vice President
When the call came that restaurants would need to shut down in-person dining, many business owners felt immediate devastation. They knew that with the pandemic hitting Waco, people would stay indoors and limit engagement outside of their homes. The most obvious evidence to support this hypothesis resided in the immediate lack of paper goods and dairy at local supermarkets!This call failed to scare Danielle and Travis Young, owners of Revival Eastside Eatery, as they jumped into action to readily change their business model. A restaurant barely a year old, on the model block of 700 Elm Avenue in a renovated church started selling their food to go at their front door within hours. Today, you can grab sandwiches, salads and burgers to go Tuesday through Saturday at lunch and weekend evenings for dinner.
What makes the Young’s unique is not that they made a shift in their efforts in a time of need, but the swiftness in which they shifted. They were one of the first in the community to open curbside during this time when they had previously not done so. This innovative culture and mindset have permeated restaurants across Waco and now across much of the United States as each learns from one another on how to survive in a current ‘new normal’ of limited in-person dining for the foreseeable future.
Community collaboration didn’t stop there, however, as produce sources were less available, partners at World Hunger Relief stepped in to deliver fresh produce so Revival could continue to serve hungry patrons with individual and family meals. One of the most beautiful pictures of collaborative work is seeing how one Solid Gold Neighbor can serve another as they are in the process of serving the greater community! There are many innovative ways to get involved and help the community around you.