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Slate Street Cafe finds ‘triumph’ in restoring dinner service
Slate Street Cafe is now offering dinner service at 515 Slate NW after the pandemic halted it five years ago.
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Slate Street Cafe is bouncing back despite challenges posed by a pandemic that flipped the business world upside down.
Owner Myra Ghattas brought dinner service back last month, just five years after it came to a screeching halt at the onset of COVID-19.
“I received emails, phone calls, people asking, ‘When are you opening for dinner?’ It was certainly a need to be filled,” Ghattas told the Journal.
Ghattas opened her Downtown cafe, at 515 Slate NW, in 2005 with breakfast, lunch and wine tastings before adding dinner service in 2006. Like many others, her business shut down in March 2020 before reopening months later without supper.
“We had to reevaluate everything,” Ghattas said.
Dinner service was restored on March 12, offering favorites of the past, including sesame-crusted ahi tuna and green chile mac and cheese, as well as new offerings like stuffed poblano peppers, sage chicken and a salmon bowl. Ghattas said dinner prices range from $10 to $30.
The cafe has also expanded its selection of drinks with the addition of new craft cocktails. The cafe’s team has grown as well, bringing on roughly six employees to help with dinner service.
While restoring dinner service in a “different” and “harder” world has been no easy feat, Ghattas said the struggles have taught her to “be open to change and pivoting and looking at things differently in order to keep growing.”
For Ghattas, the added service marks a new chapter — one that goes beyond a “return to normalcy” and reflects the business’ resilience and “triumph over the many challenges faced by small businesses during the pandemic.”
Slate Street Cafe is open for breakfast, brunch and lunch from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, and dinner 4:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
