‘We’re perfect for a pandemic’: How is business up 40 percent at this Boise restaurant?

When the coronavirus arrived in Idaho, Paddles Up Poke owner Dan Landucci temporarily closed his Boise State and Ketchum restaurants, focusing attention on downtown Boise.

It didn’t take long to realize that his flagship restaurant at 237 W. 9th St. wasn’t just going to survive — it was going to thrive.

Walk-in numbers have remained mostly unchanged during the COVID-19 crisis, Landucci says. With dine-in service banned statewide, patrons now purchase to-go orders instead.

Delivery business, meanwhile, has quadrupled, Landucci says.

Combined, they add up to a restaurant that hasn’t laid off a single employee.

“We’ve been hiring this whole time because we’ve just been so busy,” Landucci says. “Overall, we’ve seen about 40 percent growth in sales. Even our distributors called us and said, ‘Hey ... this is an error.’ ”

At a time when most restaurants are struggling, Paddles Up Poke is an anomaly. The reasons aren’t simple. They range from food style to business model to community support, Landucci believes. In some ways, it‘s a right-place, right-time situation.

“We’ve been set up to do this,” he says. “Think about our concept. It’s always been fast. It’s always been fresh. And that’s what people want right now.”

Founded in 2017, Paddles Up offers a menu of bowls and burritos filled with poke (pronounced “POH-kay”). The counter-service, fast-casual meal is prepared as patrons watch. That process makes customers feel comfortable about cleanliness, Landucci says. “You can see the employee right in front of you and see they’re not sick, and they’re clean and healthy. It helps.”

“I think the coronavirus brought awareness to health overall,” Landucci adds. “ ... And that starts with what you’re eating. And I think the quickness of our food played the other part. So for being healthy and being quick, we’re the perfect restaurant for a pandemic.”

Paddles Up isn’t the only local restaurant making lemonade out of lemons. Nearby sandwich shop Lemon Tree Co., 225 N. 10th St., also is faring better than most.

After a 75 percent sales plunge during the first two weeks of the coronavirus — and half its staff laid off — Lemon Tree steadily has trended upward, owner Jasson Parra says.

Right now, business at Lemon Tree is down just 10 to 20 percent from normal. “We are not even to what we were doing, but we are darn close,” Parra says.

Sales normally are about 80 percent dine-in, 20 percent takeout/delivery. It’s now 50-50 between takeout and delivery, he says.

Having fewer competitors downtown has helped, says Parra, who has shared ideas with Landucci during the pandemic. Prior to the coronavirus, both restaurants had efficient online ordering in place, with an array of delivery options such as Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub.

“If we had not decided to do all the online services a year ago, we would have had to figure out how to get that all going as well,” Parra says. “But we’ve already had a year’s worth of practice.”

Community support also played a huge role. Partnering with the Ronald McDonald House and local charity groups helped sales rebound at Lemon Tree, Parra says. At Paddles Up, gift card sales in the past month have exceeded those in the company’s entire history — at all the stores.

“It’s just crazy,” Landucci says. “The love for small business is strong. The community in Boise is just like no other.”

Lemon Tree plans to bring its final laid-off employee back to work next week. Then the restaurant will hire one more. “We just put an ad out,” Parra says.

Paddles Up is slated to hire more bodies again soon, too — in Canyon County. Landucci is on track to open a new store in Nampa on June 1, he says. “We’re just moving as usual.”

The restaurant world might be changing, but phoning from Ketchum, where he’s preparing to reopen that store, Landucci sounds confident.

“I think the word’s getting out on what we do,” he says.

This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 3:45 PM.