The Connection

The pandemic has not been easy for Our Mom Eugenia in Great Falls: the Greek restaurant, which relied almost entirely on indoor, dine-in service prior to the pandemic, has had to adjust to a new business model and decreased sales. But to the owners’ relief, the business is “making ends meet” as it opens a new location in Fairfax.

Lead Chef and “Our Mom” Eugenia Hobson opened the restaurant in Great Falls with her sons, Alex and Phil, in 2016. Now, the restaurant’s sales are down by around 35 percent from pre-pandemic levels. The owners attribute this decrease in part to their older demographic of regular patrons who are hesitant to dine indoors.

“People are starting to trickle back in, slowly...but I’ll be more optimistic when the vaccine is out,” Phil Hobson said. “Especially for lunches, we depend a lot on elderly people that we have only seen for carry-out.”

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, the restaurant had already created a mobile phone app and partnered with the delivery services DoorDash and UberEats, which softened the initial blow of the pandemic. Alex Hobson said that the biggest logistical challenge for the Great Falls location has been adjusting to the new carryout-oriented workflow, in which all courses in a meal must be served simultaneously, rather than one at a time.

But the even bigger challenge has been opening its new location in Fairfax. Our Mom Eugenia was recruited to open a second location at the Mosaic District shopping center in Fairfax in 2019, but it delayed opening for several months due to the pandemic.

THE TRIALS of opening a new restaurant have only added to the host of COVID-related challenges the restaurant is already facing, Hobson said.

“Me and my brother are just trying to figure this thing out; every day is pretty much a challenge,” he said. “There were a lot of video conference calls for us to obtain our permits, and we had the Health Inspector on my FaceTime walking through the restaurant...It was both challenging and interesting.”

Hobson said that the Fairfax location is better equipped for the pandemic in some respects, as it draws a younger, lower-risk population and offers outdoor seating. This has not come without hiccups—he recounted chasing the restaurant’s white table umbrellas as they tumbled down the street in a sudden gust of wind—but he says that on the whole, reopening has been successful.

The business has retained all of its kitchen staff for full-time work and about half of its wait staff throughout the pandemic. The restaurant remains afloat due to an astonishing display of support from loyal customers, Phil Hobson said.

“Our customers call us and ask ‘how many times would you like us to order per week?’ People try to loan us money, give us money...We’ve had a lot of repeat customers that order two, three, four times a week, so they’re really helping us out,” he said. “They want us to stay here, and they’ve showed it.”

The benefits of adhering to COVID-19 precautions are twofold for the Hobson brothers: professional, and personal.

“We are doing our due diligence for general public safety, but also for the fact that my mom is executive chef, and we want to take good care of her,” Alex Hobson said.

And indeed, executive chef and “Our Mom” Eugenia Hobson is still working despite the pandemic, splitting her time between the two locations. She told The Connection that she feels optimistic about the future of their business. “I’m very happy to be able to be here and work, for the family and for my two boys...We’re trying to get back to normal. But what is normal, anymore?” she said with a laugh.

THE MOST DIFFICULT moment for Hobson came in March, when she and her two sons sat down for a family meeting in the restaurant. In light of public health guidelines, they came to the conclusion that they had to temporarily halt their services. “It was very difficult for us to do that,” she said. “We were doing so well, and all of a sudden, the restaurant was closed.”

“We thank our customers. Really, they have kept us going during all this time, for five months now,” she said. “The support was amazing, unbelievable...We thank them, from the bottom of my heart.”

Our Mom Eugenia

1025 Seneca Rd #H, Great Falls, VA 22066

Hours: Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m.-9 p.m, Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

(703) 870-7807

https://www.ourmomeugenia.com/

ourmomeugenia@gmail.com