RACINE — When the COID-19 pandemic hit, it weighed on Manny Salinas. The owner of Olde Madrid restaurant in Racine immediately thought about his family.
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"It was the most heartbreaking feeling in my heart," he recalls. "This is my bread butter. I have four kids and, to be honest, I didn't sleep for like a week. I was so worried I just didn't know what to do."
What Manny did was pick himself up and keep the restaurant that he's owned with his wife for thirteen years thriving. He usually has a line out the door for his variety of Spanish tapas.
"We had to re-arrange everything," Salinas says. "We're not a to-go place, we are an elegant sit-down dinner restaurant. You sit down and order your bottle of wine, you got scallops on the menu, you have stuff that is really delicate to send out for to-go orders."
His to-go business turned to be huge. Some customers had to wait an hour and a half for their order because the demand was so high.
The seafood gumbo and beef stew are the biggest hits on the menu.