POCATELLO — The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to get creative to keep revenue flowing, and the resourcefulness of the owners of one local restaurant has turned into an endeavor that’s particularly sweet.

The Yellowstone Restaurant — inside the historic Yellowstone Hotel at 230 W. Bonneville St. in Pocatello — just celebrated its two-year anniversary.

Jennifer and Rory Erchul — who along with Mike McCormick co-own The Yellowstone as well as the Union Taproom and the 313 Whiskey Room, which all operate out of the same building — say they had big plans for their second year of operation before the coronavirus outbreak put the kibosh on everything.

In March, the restaurant had to close down because of Gov. Brad Little’s stay-home order. But they chugged along, offering take-out meals and doing whatever they could do to stay afloat. Since being able to reopen for dine-in service, The Yellowstone has started offering Sunday brunch — complete with bottomless mimosas — and that’s where the idea for a new business venture started to form.

One of the items on the brunch menu — chicken waffle sliders — is served with bourbon maple syrup, which is made right in the restaurant. The syrup was such a hit that customers kept asking if they could buy some to take home.

The Erchuls listened to them, and now customers can do just that. Bottled 313 Bourbon Maple Syrup is available both in the restaurant and in The Yellowstone’s online shop, theyellowstonerestaurant.com/shop. The first bottle is $24.99, and if customers bring their used bottles back to be reused, The Yellowstone will provide the next bottle for $19.99.

“With COVID and the reduced seating and all of the things that are happening, we continue to look for different ways that we can keep things going and increase our revenue, and this seemed like the next step — just take a product that everybody loves so much and bottle it in house and sell it,” Jennifer Erchul said.

Though the syrup does have alcohol in it, it’s boiled down and the alcohol evaporates enough to be considered alcohol free.

“Kids can enjoy it, people who don’t drink alcohol can enjoy it, and it’s not going to cross any belief system or any issue with alcohol, but it still has the bourbon flavor, which is really cool,” Jennifer Erchul said.

She is also excited about being able to sell the syrup because it’s another way to show the community just how much care goes into every food item sold at The Yellowstone.

“It’s pure maple syrup and real bourbon and a couple other special ingredients that we toss in there, and it’s just kind of exciting because it’s another way to show people that we do everything in house,” Jennifer Erchul said. “We create from scratch. What we’re giving you isn’t already prepackaged and frozen and just put in a microwave. We don’t even have a microwave in the kitchen. I think it’s pretty cool to share just the purity of the food that comes out of The Yellowstone.”

Brunch itself has also been booming, according to the Erchuls, who finally decided to take the dive into the fancy breakfast trend after months of sitting on the idea.

“To kind of augment the business and with everything going on, we just wanted to continue to offer different things to different people,” Rory Erchul said. “We used to be closed on Sundays, and lots of people were saying, ‘Oh geez, we need a good brunch place in town because nobody has that.’ And keeping with what we’re trying to do with an elevated experience in The Yellowstone, it just seemed to make sense to do it and to give people what they’ve been asking for.”

COVID PIVOT

The Erchuls say that before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the business was on track to have a big year. Then that all came to a screeching halt.

“We figured out how to pivot very quickly to make sure that we could continue having a restaurant, having the bars, during shutdown with fewer employees and still make it make sense for our guests and for our business,” Jennifer Erchul said.

Right away, The Yellowstone started offering take-out and curbside pick-up. Even though they’ve now reopened for dine-in service, take-out meals are still a big part of the business.

“Take-out, online ordering, that’s become a pretty big part of our business because people still want to enjoy good food and want to have food cooked for them, but they still don’t feel comfortable coming in,” Rory Erchul said.

One of the biggest financial hits the business has taken this year is the loss of catering jobs, which was one of the aspects of the business the Erchuls wanted to focus on in 2020 and which had seen a lot of growth.

Rory Erchul said that when the stay-home order was put in effect, they had to cancel more than 20 catering events, including two shows the local theater troupe The Westside Players had been planning to put on. The Yellowstone caters all their shows.

“Just when we had gotten everything lined up and we had really started to run on all cylinders, then that happened, which was a huge bummer,” he said. “So it went from being extremely busy to just doing take-out and online ordering and delivering. So we’re back to ‘how do we make it in this new environment? And how are we going to continue to grow the business and change it a little bit to suit the needs of the people?’ Doing the maple syrup was just a way to try and figure it out — grow the business, grow the brand.”

The Westside Players are back to putting on plays, but the way The Yellowstone caters their performances has changed. Pre-COVID-19, there was a buffet line. Now the caterers have to the plate the dishes and bring them to theatergoers at their tables instead.

“We had to figure out how to do that safely, and it’s been a learning curve for sure,” Jennifer Erchul said.

After reopening, The Yellowstone added outside seating, which was a hit with customers. The Erchuls would like to invest more money into improving the outside area, but “it's hard to spend money when we’re in such a confined market right now,” Jennifer Erchul said. “We’re still at half capacity, we can’t bring in all the tables, we can’t have the full house that we’re used to.”

But, despite everything, business is still going well for The Yellowstone. The employees who were furloughed are back at work. Sales are good despite the restaurant not being allowed to be at full capacity.

“Things are going good considering the circumstances that we’re all dealing with,” Jennifer Erchul said. “It’s super exciting that we’ve been here two years, and had we not had COVID, we are very, very confident that we would continue building on the great that we were at and then, since shutdown, we’ve continued every week to increase our guest level, increase our sales, so we’re doing fine. I wouldn’t by any means say, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re doing amazing, everything is fantastic,’ but we’re doing OK.”

Rory Erchul added, “We’re just trying to get back to business as normal, whatever that is anymore in this industry and during this time. We’re really looking forward to a vaccination.”

MORE BUSINESS VENTURES

In addition to the new bottled syrup, there are other things coming down the pike at The Yellowstone.

The restaurant has a new executive chef, who recently rolled out the new seasonal menu change. The change also switched up the cocktail menu to include “nice, warm and tasty fall and winter treats,” Jennifer Erchul said.

The chef, who is from Nashville, is also going to be working on creating some in-house barbecue sauces that will be bottled and sold alongside the bourbon maple syrup.

Additionally, Jennifer Erchul said, “We’re going to start doing music every Saturday in the Union just because people are ready for it, and we’re still socially distanced at all our tables, so if you come in with a group, you can sit with your group but each group still has spacing between them. We’re excited to still be able to provide entertainment and keep people safe, which is important.”

The Yellowstone has also recently rolled out a VIP club. Members will get discounts and the ability to be the first to try new menu items, among other perks. The restaurant will also send out recipes — including ones that are used at The Yellowstone — to VIP members. 

“We’ll show some tutorials in the kitchen, how we do this,” Jennifer Erchul said. “If you’re just a regular cook at home but you like trying new things, this might be an opportunity to entertain yourself or your friends and create some great dishes. That’s kind of exciting to have another elevated experience with The Yellowstone when you’re not necessarily at The Yellowstone.”

ON LOVING OLD TOWN

Two years into running the unique three-bar, two-restaurant business, the Erchuls say that they’re still loving it.

“We love being part of Old Town and being part of the growth and being able to offer something down here,” Rory Erchul said. “… We’re very appreciative and grateful that we have this space to do what we’re doing here and trying to offer something unique and different. So far, things have been really pretty good.”

He said that their successful business — and all the successful neighboring businesses — helps bring people downtown, which helps everyone. When the nearby brewery Off The Rails opened its doors, that brought more people into The Yellowstone as well.

“The more things that are down here to bring people down here, the more cross traffic we all get,” Rory Erchul said. “Star Route (Brewery) is going to be opening up down the street pretty soon. That’s just good for everybody down here, and I know that it really kind of seems to be focused around alcohol with the breweries and stuff like that, but that’s what people want, particularly outsiders coming in.”

There will always be friendly competition among the Old Town businesses, but, Jennifer Erchul said, “we all help each other. It’s a pretty tight community.”

Rory Erchul added, “We’re just grateful for the opportunity, and we look at all our neighbors and think, ‘Man, let’s all work together to build Old Town,’ because if Old Town does well, we all do well. If Old Town doesn’t do well and people don’t have options and you’re the only place down here, we probably wouldn’t have the business that we have.”