A window of opportunity: Martha’s Cafe reopens with a drive-thru

BLACKFOOT, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - For six weeks, Martha's Cafe was closed. With no customers at the counter and no orders in the kitchen, they decided to make a change.

"We’ve always wanted to put a drive-thru in," owner Pam Metz said. "We decided - my kids decided - that we should get on that, so thank God for our kids. They all jumped in and we got it done in about a week and here we are."

Metz has owned Martha's since 1990. She said adding a drive-thru had always been something they discussed, but having to shut their doors to customers was the motivation they needed to actually go through with it.

Opening their new window of opportunity last Friday, Metz says it's been like starting from scratch. 

"We’re starting like a new business because we don’t know what we’re doing," she joked. "We’ve never had online ordering, now we have online ordering."

"We’re learning, it’s a learning process, but it’s been pretty good, so far."

Preparing to-go orders is a change of pace from sit down dishes and there’s a pinch of adjustment with each meal.  

"The to-go is a lot of work," Metz said. "You have to do everything separately, it’s not just on a nice little plate, so that’s probably been our biggest challenge, figuring out how to do this."

According to Metz, things are getting better each day and their die-hard diners are helping ease the stress.

"We’re getting pumped now, again. We’re feeling a little better about things that we still have a lot of our customers, so it’s not quite as scary as it was," she said. 

Even though the work has been tough, Neeley Metz, Pam's daughter, said it’s great to be out of the house.

“We don’t sit at home, we’re always down here socializing and visiting and things like that. And so, to not have that, it was kind of like taking a piece of us away," she said. "So, we’re glad to have it back and be able to communicate and socialize with people again."