Covid-19 takes its toll

Family-owned businesses are among the losers during the covid-19 pandemic.

Familiar places that are part of the hometown landscape are shutting their doors and saying goodbye to longtime customers and friends.

Prior to Hoyett’s Facebook announcement last Saturday that they sold the long-time Wasco restaurant, Joyful Steps at 747 F Street held what looked like a large yard sale, which turned out to be its going-out-of-business sale.

Several attempts have been made to contact owners Christopher and Gabriella Carlsberg; however, no luck in being able to reach out to them. An email to the Bee business that Christopher owned bounced back and no one answered the telephone number on the business card.

Joyful Steps started out as a secondhand store when Gabriella Carlsberg opened its doors. Her husband, Christopher, contributed to the merchandise as the store began selling homemade honey directly from bees that he maintained; the store also sold special soaps, different flavors of honey, jewelry and finely scented lotions.

Customers would walk down F Street and stop in to wander through whatever treasures they could find at Joyful Steps

Hoyett’s Sandwich Shop maintained a steady stream of diners in its heyday. With the closure of all restaurants at the beginning of the pandemic and the governor stating that restaurants could offer take-out only, the restaurant seemed to be able to catch up. Hoyett’s created an outside dining area in back of the restaurant, and many local diners took advantage of their breakfast and the warm weather.

However, one of the servers at Hoyett’s said that if the governor orders another shutdown, the restaurant would not be able to survive.

Then Governor Newsom opened Kern County to dine-in patrons, but he closed them again within a week except for take-out and outdoor dining. It was then that the owner of Hoyett’s decided to sell the restaurant.

Not all of Wasco’s eateries have succumbed to the pandemic. Karen’s Cookies was open one day this past week and cookie lovers hope she is able to continue being open more than one day.

When the original closure occurred, necessities such as flour, sugar and baking ingredients were hard to come by as most store shelves were stripped bare due to a sharp increase in cooking and baking while people were quarantined.