“It was pretty devastating.”
That’s how a lot of business owners felt when the pandemic forced them to close in March.
It’s certainly how Jessica Waite felt when the public health rules in San Diego County forced her to close The Plot in Oceanside just a few weeks after it opened.
“It was amazing. It was the best opening I could ask for,” said Waite, who owns The Plot with her husband and chef Davin Waite. “Then to finally get it open and celebrate it and be shut down, I mean really, it was hard.”
The fledgling restaurant also had an ethos that stood to make business even harder:
“We didn’t want anything to end up in the landfill that came into our building,” said Waite.
The plant-based, no waste restaurant focuses on using local farms and growers for its menu. It also uses takeout containers customers can throw directly into their compost.
“It will turn into soil within 90 days,” she said while holding one of the off-white containers.
Despite the open-and-close rules set forth by public health officials, Waite said The Plot has managed to survive and thrive while still supporting other local farms and businesses. She said they also try to utilize as much of their plants as possible to make up for the slight increase in supplies.
“You’re using every little bit of the products. So, you’re wasting a lot less product and money,” she said.
Waite said they haven’t sent anything to the landfill since the pandemic began.
“We weren’t making a ton of money, but we were staying pretty strong,” she said. “It’s not been fun. Like a lot of that. A lot of that growth is not fun.”
Local
The Plot is still open Wednesday through Sunday. It’s the third restaurant Jessica and Davin Waite operate in Oceanside.
