KYW Newsradio's Community Comeback series checks in on Philadelphia neighborhoods and livelihoods to find out how small businesses made it through the pandemic and how they are surviving and even thriving today.
SOUTH PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The squeak of the door interrupts the tap and clatter of two wooden chess pieces colliding, as an espresso machine whirls in the background.
That tapestry of sound is perhaps unlike that of any other small business in Philadelphia. The uniqueness of Queen and Rook Game Cafe, 607 South 2nd Street, with its restaurant, its full bar, and its library of 1,400 board games, is part of why it has survived the COVID-19 pandemic with other businesses in the South Street Headhouse District.
"We are a board game café, which there are not a lot of," as owner Edward Garcia puts it.
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"You order food and drinks, and then someone comes over and asks if you would like to play some games. And it’s $7 per person for three hours. And what you do is you can play as many games as you want during that time."
If you have the time, they have the games — to rent with that beer, coffee or side of nachos.
"We have everything from little kid games, like Chutes and Ladders, and classics like Clue and Monopoly. We have a whole shelf of just the Hobbit and Game of Thrones games. We have the newest board games from Europe, the newest local games as well, by local game makers," said Garcia.
"We have people who are game experts. We call them game keepers. And the game keepers will come over and explain to you or recommend some games to you."
All of them are COVID-19-safe. "We sanitize all of the games," Garcia said.
"All of our staff still wears gloves. We still have customers wear gloves when they handle the games while they are browsing. They don’t have to play with the gloves on."
The spread of the delta variant prompted the city to mandate that masks be worn indoors again on Aug. 12. Queen and Rook never stopped requiring masks for staff and customers during the pandemic.
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"In some ways, we are kind of used to this," Garcia explained.
"There are a lot of new challenges, and people are canceling reservations because, understandably, they are a little more hesitant to come out now, but we are going to make it through this like we made it through everything."
Their business, which opened just six months before the coronavirus struck Philadelphia, has operated through a nearly 18-month pandemic, including public health restrictions and economic fallout. And the game café continues to make it through the challenges that remain, one by one, including a stubborn staffing shortage.
Garcia says staffing is the No. 1 issue.
"Any kind of cold symptom ends up being [waiting] until you get a negative COVID test, which could be three, four, five days. Kitchen staff were out for various reasons, and so It makes it a lot harder," Garcia said.
"I talked to a lot of restauranteurs. Staffing is a No. 1 issue for a lot of reasons."
At one point, Garcia said he had to lay off some staff members.
"But as soon as we could, we started bringing people back," he said.
"Everyone who wanted to come back has come back. And some people moved away and got into other fields."
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Like so many other businesses, Queen and Rook Game Café had to pivot their product line to make it through, and they expanded their overall business during the pandemic with the opening of The Keep.
The shop, a couple of doors down at 613 South 2nd Street, sells board games rather than renting them.
"People during the pandemic were looking for something to do, and puzzles and board games were something they could do at home," Garcia added.
"Board games really bring that non-electronic, you know, 'I’m looking at you and we are playing together over a board,' and there really isn’t anything like that [virtually]. And people re-discovered that over the pandemic. We sold a lot of board games, [including to] two people who haven’t bought a board game since they were a kid."
A restaurant and pub with board games is one unique product line to help you get through a pandemic.
So, apparently, are offerings such as waist cinches, with skulls and crossbones, and — yes — even metal buckles.
Like Queen & Rook, Crash Bang Boom's unusual product line and specifically targeted clientele gave it a leg up through the coronavirus pandemic.
“Obviously the impact of it was very big. And, for a while, ... we were closed for a few months, as a lot of businesses were. Then bouncing back from that, and opening in a safe and responsible way, and just persevering through," said Rob Windfelder, the co-owner of the store at 528 South 4th Street, which has operated for more than 15 years.
"It’s fashion that is based off of a lot of different things -- like punk rock, rock ‘n’ roll, gothic wear and club wear -- things like that. And it tends to form scenes of people."
Windfelder says he is grateful to the customers who have remained supportive of his business.
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"It’s funny. As a retailer, it took a little while for our suppliers to get used to the fact that businesses were opening again, and people were there and going to be ringing our phones again, so there was a little catch-up there involving getting goods to sell from our suppliers, because they weren’t answering the phones when nobody was ringing them."
Despite the hoops his store had to jump through to mount a comeback he calls "disjointed," Windfelder said they have made it through the pandemic with doors open for over a year.
"We are very, very grateful to the people of the city and our loyal clientele that have kept us here and helping us get through it," he said about a diverse fan base that he considers to be a community in itself.
Windfelder said that community stayed in touch with each other and aided in getting the word out about his shop during the lean times of COVID-19, even as other small businesses had to permanently close their doors.
"It works out to be a great grapevine to get the word out that we are here and we are going," he said.
"South Street has a long storied history of a number of different types of businesses and a really strong business community down here," Windfelder said.
"Our neighbors are our friends, sometimes like family members, to the point of loyalty towards each other. We are supportive of each. It’s not a cutthroat competition."
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And for those businesses who could not sustain themselves through the battle for survival, Windfelder can understand what that pain means, because he has invested himself in the same way those other business owners had.
“When you start a business, your own business, especially a small independent business, it takes not just an investment of your finances that you can pull together, but of your time and your energy. It becomes a very big part of your life," he said.
"To see people struggle and fight to keep something going for so long and lose it during a tragedy like the pandemic, it’s very hard to watch and see because it’s a very personal issue for business owners. It’s not just a pastime or a job that they can easily replace. It’s something that they are firmly invested in with every part of their life."
The 300 and 400 blocks of South Street are filled with empty spaces telling those stories of very personal investment in small businesses that didn't make it.
Some people have said they get an eerie feeling with all of the empty businesses. Some of those spaces have been vacant since before the pandemic.
Efforts are underway to change that, South Street Headhouse District Executive Director Mike Harris said.
"We are concentrating on the 300 and 400 block of South Street, and is that is where our highest rate of vacancies are," he said.
"But we have at least three more businesses, if not more, coming in there.”
Harris explained that adding businesses is a block-by-block process, and that the goal is to ultimately create a unique shopping area where one can come to have a great time.
The neighborhood space itself can sometimes become the impetus for business growth.
Earlier in summer 2021, there was a ribbon cutting for Headhouse Plaza along second between South and Lombard streets. It took about a year to complete.
“It’s been a long time coming and we worked really hard on this with the whole team, and to actually be here opening it and seeing the plaza being used by the public is a rewarding day," Harris said.
“One of the inspirations for this was to create a flexible public space that we could do events that didn’t have parking meters, didn’t have curbs, didn’t have obstructions in the center, and so we created an open space. When we have festivals and events coming in the future, it becomes a much more flexible space for that.”
A different use of space has often become a lifeline for businesses, such as restaurants using outdoor dining structures called "streeteries," Harris said.
Many South Street restaurants took advantage of that pandemic trend, and efforts are underway to make South Street more pedestrian friendly and less vehicle intensive, so more things can be done outdoors in the future.
Meanwhile, Harris has spent much of the last two years focused on keeping businesses existing during the pandemic, so they can eventually return to thriving. Much of that effort involved communication with the public about the 400 businesses that he serves, and among the businesses themselves.
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"When you got past the initial shock from March and April and people trying to figure out what was going on, we felt our job was to keep communicating the whole time to let people know what businesses were open," Harris said.
"As programs and grants became available, our job was to communicate that out to people, and as the rules and regulations changed, that was the biggest issue, to try and keep the business community [apprised] of what the current regulations were and things that were changing."
As the pandemic evolves and hopefully wanes, Harris is taking the time to even more transform South Street.
"We want to build on the legacy of South Street, and the South Street that people know and love. But we also think that it’s still a vibrant area and still has tons of visitors and tourists that come in," he said.
"What we are trying to do is try to create a corridor that is reflective of what the community wants, what is going to be good for Philadelphia, what is going to be good for people who tour the city and want to come here to experience it. Our goal is to have a unique shopping area where you find things that you can’t find anywhere else and that the people who come here have a great time."
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But for that to happen, it takes owners of businesses like Queen and Rook Game Café and Crash Bang Boom — with unique services and ability to turn obstacles like a pandemic into a chess piece a queen can defeat, to make an investment of passion that can work in a unique part of Philadelphia.
"It has to come from inside individuals who are looking to go out and work hard. Maybe they have an idea, see an opportunity to be on South Street in Philadelphia and think 'I am going to take a chance and open my business there and work as hard as I can there to make it something that people would enjoy,'" Windfelder shared.
"I think the spirit of what is going to fill those businesses comes out of the individual. You're going to get support from other businesses, and it’s a great place to show up for work everyday."