We appreciate all your hard work and accomplishments.Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Episode: "Savory with a Side of Sweet"įace-sized cinnamon roll made from scratch, hand rolled & baked in-house topped w/ fresh cream cheese frosting "delicious" -Guy Fieri looks good “This award is reflective of your leadership and commitment to growing our economy, creating good jobs in our communities, and supporting the next generation of business leaders. “We recognize you and your organization for your business success and community contributions,” Marla Trollan, SBA Utah District director, said. In celebration of National Small Business Week, Cardenas and Coker received the SBA’s Utah District Small Business Person of the Year Award for 2022. You were the high-water mark to which I’ve measured all the other restaurants since then.” Utah Small Business Administration Award “There will only be one Red Iguana and 85,000 moles. “In 2008, we’d only been on the air for two years, and you guys set such a great example for me as a chef and as the host of the show as to what I wanted to see for mom and pop multigenerational restaurants,” Fieri said. In 2020, Guy Fieri and “Triple-D Nation” returned to The Red Iguana to see how the national recognition “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives” brought to the restaurant had impacted it in the 12 years since the show aired. Taste of Red Iguana was closed for 56 days, and Red Iguana 2 was closed for 24 days. The Original Red Iguana stayed closed for 111 days and reopened but was restricted to 50% capacity for 249 days. “When we received Small Business Administration (SBA) Cares Act relief funds, we paid them retroactively, brought back furloughed staff, and have worked hard to ensure they all have a living wage.” The couple kept as many employees as possible working at reduced wages, furloughed the rest, and promised to rehire and restore full pay as soon as possible. Several employees have been with the restaurant for more than 10 years, some over 20 years. They are our Red Iguana family and the core of our business,” Cardenas said. “We shifted into survival mode, and our biggest concern was our 215 employees and their health and welfare without a job. “We converted a dining room to a staging area with dining room servers running the food out to the cars.”Ĭardenas and Coker didn’t know on March 17, 2020, when the dining rooms were ordered to close, when they would open again, if ever. “We numbered all the parking stalls, positioned a gatekeeper on a walkie-talkie catching cars, radioed to team members inside the order and parking stall number,” Coker added. At one point, the restaurant received 55,000 calls for curbside orders in less than three months. They repositioned three point-of-sale computers and utilized staff to receive inbound phone orders. Instead, the duo focused on Red Iguana 2, which was larger and safer to operate for staff, and curbside pickup orders, which were our only income. Through hard times and countless sleepless nights, they survived thanks to the patronage and support of community members.ĭue to its small size and social distancing protocols, the original Red Iguana immediately closed when indoor dining stopped on March 17, 2020, “We immediately scrambled to re-invent our business to have any income at all,” Coker noted. As a result of the worldwide pandemic, Cardenas and Coker were forced to adapt to a new business model. Before the coronavirus pandemic, all three Red Iguana restaurants flourished, steadily growing to serve 750,000 customers a year.
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