ARLINGTON, Va. — Be it breakfast, lunch, dinner, or anything in between, Good Company Doughnuts and Café has you covered. The small business opened in spring of 2019. Like many other restaurants across the region, the cafe relied heavily on its patio space to serve its diners during the pandemic.
Now, the family-run business fears a new bus stop shelter being constructed outside its doors will take a slice out of their business.
“We were not open indoors, just because we were trying to limit the indoor dining because of the pandemic and the size of our space,” owner Charles Kachadoorian said.
This week, a new bus shelter was placed at the corner of Glebe Road and 7th Street in Arlington. The county said the plan has been in place since 2015 despite outcry from some community members.
In a letter sent out to neighbors and business owners, the county said because the bus shelter is transparent, it shouldn’t affect the visibility of this business. But Kachadoorian said that’s not their primary concern.
“We're basically losing most of our patio, unfortunately, because of where the bus stop is located,” he said.
With the new shelter and stop, Kachadoorian said it will reduce their outdoor dining options to less than half of what they were once able to seat.
“We support there being a bus stop and a bus shelter in place," he said. "We were just hoping that it could be placed a little further south on Glebe Road to a spot where it would serve the bus stop and people waiting for it, and also allow us to have a patio."
Now after surviving the height of the pandemic, Kachadoorian said he fears they won’t survive a reduction in seating.
“We're a small business, we don't have a lot of reserve to have a negative outcome," he said. "What you see here, we won't even be able to have this seating. It'll just be two tops in between these pillars here. So we're gonna end up with maybe 12 seats outside."