Orso almost shuttered for good during the pandemic, but an employee’s gamble saved it.
By the time Chef Eric DuBey flipped on the lights in the kitchen at Orso earlier this year, every surface sat under nearly two years of dust. A 22-year fixture on Fifth Avenue in downtown Anchorage, the restaurant closed hastily in March 2020. No one had been back.
But the pandemic -- the lockdowns, customers’ fear of infection, the lack of cruise ships, the labor crunch -- shut that all down in Anchorage like it did everywhere else. Some blocks kept a few lights on, but only now are others beginning to flicker back. On show nights at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, it’s getting a little harder to park on Fifth Avenue. The Westmark Hotel, boarded up for years, is accepting reservations for May.
“Robert felt strongly about reconnecting with those local businesses and especially now that there are supply chain issues,” DuBey said. “All businesses that are restaurant-oriented, food-service oriented, they’re struggling, we wanted to spread that money around as much as possible.”The restaurant needed dishes and glasses, but they were slowed on their way to Alaska by supply chain glitches. Everything needed to be deep cleaned.
“They had to-go bottle service for people staying in the hotel. A lot of people were quarantined there,” she said.That was a stroke of luck. Then, the place set up plastic dining igloos outside. And it went nuts.Orso offered to let her retain the benefits she’d left when the restaurant closed. And she was attached to the bar and her regulars. So when they asked her to come back, she agreed.
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