Wickson: Food from the Heart

The month of March started normally enough—there were commitments to fulfill, goals to pursue. Life rolled along merrily until … it didn’t. All our plans took a sharp turn off a high cliff, as the county ordered us to park at home and once-crowded calendars were wiped clean. Suddenly, for a lot of folks, there wasn’t much to do but sit around and fondly remember a time when venturing out into public didn’t feel like a Darwinistic game of Russian roulette.

For Rodney Workman and Alexa Newman, March was supposed to include the opening of their new restaurant, Wickson. Launching a nascent business is always a stressful enterprise, and the pandemic compounded the difficulties. County staff were largely unavailable to finalize permits in process, so they were unable to offer even the to-go meals that other restaurants were scraping by on. And as a new venture, they did not qualify for any of the grants or loan options available to other small businesses.

Yet even though it was frustrating to have their opening postponed, the extra time did offer some benefits. Alexa reflects, “We’ve saved on overhead, and we’ve had time to test and experiment.” Rodney agrees. “We’d been rushing to open the restaurant. Now we have had time to reflect. And we developed skills we wouldn’t otherwise have.”