Lessons learned: Reno entrepreneurs share success stories due to pandemic pivots

By Kaleb Roedel

Shila Morris, left, and Kay Salerno,

It was a year ago, and sisters Shila Morris and Kay Salerno, co-owners of five Squeeze In restaurants in the Northern Nevada region, were throwing spaghetti at the wall.

OK, not literally. The popular brunch spots, known for their omelets, don’t have pasta on the menu. Even if they did, this was not a time to waste food.

It was mid-March 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic had just taken hold in the U.S., shutting down food and beverage businesses across the country.

“Overnight, 85% of our revenue went away,” Morris said in a video interview in early 2021. “Never has our financial security been as threatened as it was in March.”

Like many, Morris and Salerno said they felt the pull to “wallow and doomscroll” when COVID hit. But then the sisters — who are also co-owners of the Squeeze In group, which makes up a total of 11 franchised locations dotted in the West, including the company’s flagship eatery in Historic Downtown Truckee — quickly snapped back into their entrepreneurial mindsets.

“We freaked out about it for one day,” Morris said. “And then we went into action mode and threw as much spaghetti at the wall as we could.”

Some ideas didn’t stick, like take-home smoothie kits and home delivery service, Salerno noted. The innovations that did stick — trimming down the menu, dialing in to-go items and offering customers the opportunity to sponsor a hot meal for a frontline worker, among others — “saved the family-business,” Morris added.

Read entire article in the NNBW: https://www.nnbw.com/news/2021/mar/26/lessons-learned-reno-entrepreneurs-share-success-s/