Los Angeles’ Angie Kim on how plans for her first restaurant are evolving in the face of coronavirus

As part of our Stories from the Front Lines series, Restaurant Hospitality reached out to restaurateurs to share their experiences during the coronavirus crisis. Angie Kim is working to open her first restaurant, Interstellar, with her husband, Daniel Kim, in Santa Monica, Calif. Here is her story.

After months of planning to open our very first restaurant, my husband and I came to the decision to keep the doors closed for the time being and delay the grand opening. It was a difficult decision to make, but one we felt was right for the safety of our employees and customers.

Our plan is to regroup and strategize on how we can refocus our business to best accommodate to-go orders and deliveries. That means adjusting the menu to offer food items that will deliver well — including sandwiches, salads, avocado toast and a bulgogi breakfast burrito — offering coffee boxes with a longer shelf life, adding new health drinks and soups, care packages, etc. for those living in our community to help get through these challenging times.

While this adds extra pressure for us as first-time restaurant owners, we are staying hopeful and positive that things will get better soon and are also doing our best to prepare for what is to come. I believe that we can use this time to come together as a community to help each other out during these hard times.

This is part of our Stories from the Front Lines series.