‘We kind of have to help each other out right now’

It isn’t often that you can walk into a restaurant and a plate-sized tenderloin is served up, free of charge. But that is exactly what diners were treated to at Cratty Shack over the weekend thanks to the generosity of company cities away.

I-80 Concrete of Clive decided after having a successful year, even in pandemic conditions, to give back to those who struggled. Having received Paycheck Protection Plan funds last March during the uncertain times, the company headed by brothers Brett, Mark and Ryan McDonough, decided to pay it forward when the year turned out better than expected.

“With us having a good year, it does a lot more for other people to help them out. We looked for businesses to nominate that needed some help and were looking for opportunities,” Brett McDonough said. “We have three restaurants, which seem to be kind of the big ones right now struggling. We looked at it where, we were fortunate enough to be in an industry that didn’t get impacted as much so we are trying to do our part to help those out that got beat up.”

It was thanks to a Cratty Shack customer that the restaurant came under the eye of the brothers. Owner Alisha Munoz said she hadn’t even heard of the opportunity but was more than excited when she was contacted by McDonough.

“For us, we didn’t get COVID assistance. They looked at our 2019 and 2020 sales and compared the two, but we weren’t open for half of 2019 so our sales looked great come 2020, so then you don’t qualify for anything,” Munoz said. “By them going in and pre-purchasing that, it is bringing the community out to us but is also bringing our customers back to us that we haven’t seen for about a year. We have lost so many customers because of the pandemic.”

By investing about $3,000 through the purchase of the top-selling item, McDonough hopes to not only give a financial boost to Cratty Shack, but help get customers coming back on a repeat basis. Like a lot of restaurants, the Colfax eatery has seen a sharp decline in those visiting the shop.

“By Brett and them doing this for us, it brought our customers back, it brought us business and people we hadn’t even seen before. It is great, an amazing opportunity,” Munoz said. “It brings in that extra cash flow because when they are getting that free tenderloin, they are looking at the ice cream and ordering ice cream and getting other meal items to go with it. That was his goal and a lot of people were doing that.”

By Friday night, 100 tenderloins were passed out. With 100 more available the rest of the weekend, a slew of customers made their way to Cratty Shack, both long-time patrons and those new to the business.

“(We want) people to go out, obviously get back into a place, feeling more safe and go out and doing it again and again down the road. Some people have just gotten out of the habit of going out to eat and if this helps get them back in the habit of doing that, we are killing two birds with one stone,” McDonough said. “We know what it is like to start a business and it is an uphill battle to begin with let alone when you have stuff like this to kick you in the rear end.”

This isn’t a one-and-done partnership between I-80 Concrete and Cratty Shack, either. A few weeks down the road the company will once again fund a free meal weekend to further the efforts. Information about the second event will be distributed as the date grows closer.

“One thing I’m hoping this kind of does is get other businesses in the same spot that had good years this year, get them to be willing to go out do similar things for other people,” McDonough said. “It’s one of those things that people either did great or really bad and we kind of have to help each other out right now.”

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com