Schuyler’s Country Kitchen will reopen on its 10th anniversary Feb. 9, offering customers a new look with orders-to-go and a deli counter. P-J file photo

LAKEWOOD — Schuyler’s Country Kitchen, located at 4477 Fairmount Ave. in Lakewood, was just one of many small businesses hit hard by COVID-19 restrictions over the past year, ultimately closing in August.

Deb Schuyler, co-owner with her husband Ernie, wasn’t sure what the future would hold after shutting her doors to the public, but now there is hope on the horizon.

The Schuylers have spent the last several months adapting their business model to the pandemic, and will welcome customers back inside on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

“It has been very challenging, let’s just put it that way,” Deb Schuyler said Thursday. “It’s going to be a little bit of a different type of business. We will not be having sit-down eating, it will be an essential business. Food to go–a lot of the stuff I cooked before–and I also put in deli cases and I’m going to be selling items on the shelves and deli meats and specialty cheeses.”

With the intimate setting inside Schuyler’s, operating at 50% capacity was simply not an option financially during New York State’s most stringent lockdown.

Over the span of just a few months, the restaurant atrophied from a thriving lunch and breakfast spot into outright closure.

“With the rules changing consistently throughout the months since we shut down on Aug. 30, the last five months have been just crazy,” Schuyler said. “I can’t really put words to having a wonderful business that was thriving and getting better year-after-year-after-year (to closing).”

Aiding the restaurant’s return has been the unyielding support of customers.

“All I can say is thank God for Facebook, because it has been a wonderful way for me to communicate with our customers,” Schuyler said. “Every time I put something out there our customers are just wonderful, they are like family to us. I mean we have known these people for 10 years now. They are excited that we are opening up, it is going to be different, but isn’t everything different?”

In a strange twist of fate, Schuyler’s return on Feb. 9 will mark its 10-year anniversary on Fairmount Avenue.

Plans are for the kitchen to operate from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., while the deli will be open all day until 5 p.m.

In addition to offering breakfast favorites like sandwiches, potato pancakes and sausage gravy with homemade biscuits, Schuyler’s has expanded its beverage options to include cappuccinos with whipped cream, as well as new roasted and cold-brewed coffee.

“People can run in, grab it and go,” Schuyler said. “We are going to be offering dinners to go also. One day it is going to be meatloaf, the next day it is going to be pot roast, and pork roast and stuffed pork chops. We’re just going to see how many people really want that from us.”

Deb and Ernie were able to take advantage of some economic stimulus during shutdown, but did not pursue paycheck protection program funds, which would not have helped with capacity restrictions.

“I was allowed through the small business association to get a small stipend from them, which I know after researching it, I’m going to have to pay it back,” Schuyler said.