Sticking it out — PROGRESS

Sometimes, a man fits his time and place. At the right moment, he brings to the fore his most necessary qualities.

In a time of great challenges, Doug Pellum, owner of Zachary’s, located at 205 Fifth St. N., saw his business destroyed by fire and closed by COVID-19 within a year. Through it all, he has not just persevered, but prospered and expanded. His business empire now includes the original restaurant, the former Elbow Room and, soon, the old Rollins-Crigler location directly behind and down the Second Avenue hill from Zachary’s.

Pellum also made a name for himself as a tireless fundraiser for good causes, whether helping the Humane Society or helping people in need pay for funeral expenses.

Zachary’s beginning

It very nearly didn’t happen that way, though. Zachary’s opened 21 years ago in the shopping complex at 507 18th Ave. N., in the space where CJ’s Pizza is now.

“We opened in May,” Pellum said. “You remember what happened in September. That day we didn’t have a single customer. Everybody started saving their money. There were gas lines. People weren’t going out to eat. It was really tough.”

After a very challenging first year, Pellum relocated to the corner of Fifth Street and Second Avenue. He wasn’t the first restaurant owner to give that location a try — previous establishments include Roy’s Kitchen, Michael Boland’s and Chucky’s Diner.

“When we started out, we would run maybe four people at lunch,” he said. “Now we run 26.”

Zachary’s became a downtown staple, developing a reputation not just for food and a bar but also for charity work, hosting benefits for everyone from the Humane Society to high school robotics teams.

Then Zachary’s burned.

Rising from the ashes

On Apr. 28, 2019, Pellum was at home and got a strange phone call.

“A lady called and said she’d just been by (Zachary’s) and asked if I was the owner,” he said. “I don’t know how she even got my number. Then Rhonda Sanders (at that time an officer with the Columbus Police Department) called me and told me I needed to get up here. It was bad.”

The cord for an air conditioning wall unit in the kitchen started the fire. The building was a total loss.

“The only thing left was the outside brick walls,” he said. “The fire never made it out of the kitchen, but there was smoke and water damage everywhere.”

Zachary’s would be closed for nearly five months. Pellum kept his employees — 50 or so at that time — on payroll while the restaurant was rebuilt.

“Our employees had been our backbone for 18 years,” he said. “We couldn’t open without them. If I didn’t keep them on payroll, they would end up at other restaurants and, as good as they were, they might not come back.”

Pellum used his staff both to help with the building and to continue the restaurant’s mission of charity work.

“We went out and did community service everywhere from the Dream Center to the YMCA to Loaves and Fishes and the Humane Society,” he said. “They also helped as part of the demolition, pulling stuff out and cleaning what we could save. They did everything they could to help get it back going again.”

In the end, the vast majority of the employees — Pellum estimated 80 percent — stuck it out.

The community also turned out in droves to help. Local restaurants fed Pellum’s crew. Longtime customers showed up with their grills to cook. Charging stations for workers’ cell phones were donated. A benefit, held at the Trotter Convention Center, raised enough money to cover payroll for about three weeks.

“You never want to be on the receiving end (of charity), you never want to be in that situation,” Pellum said. “It was a blessing to see how much the community cared. It was just totally different. Everybody jumped in … it was crazy.”

Zachary’s, pictured from Second Avenue North.

Turning tragedy to opportunity

Pellum turned the tragedy into opportunity, expanding the restaurant to add kitchen space and more seating, eventually adding about 1,500 square feet to the original 4,000 or so. He also built a deck on the Second Avenue side of the building to serve as a smoking section.

Shortly before reopening, Pellum bought the Elbow Room. The dive bar, located at 418 Second Ave. N., became an event space.

“I was turning down parties every week just because I didn’t have space for 25-30 people,” he said. “I decided to use (the Elbow Room) as an event tavern, rent-your-own bar. It was booked five or nights a week. It was booming. At least until COVID-19 hit.”

Reinventing during the pandemic

Zachary’s was one of the first restaurants to close at the outset of the pandemic, shutting its doors even before then-Mayor Robert Smith’s shutdown order. This time Pellum was unable to keep paying his people.

“We just couldn’t do it,” he said. “We didn’t know how long we would be closed, if we would be shut down forever. Nobody knew anything.”

Zachary’s reopened June 6, 2020, on a to-go basis. Pellum tried everything from to-go daiquiris to ice cream and cotton candy to keep the doors open. And it worked — the Zachary’s daiquiri became a ubiquitous sight during that first pandemic summer.

The restaurant soon was able to open at 50 percent capacity, but the closure was a shot in the arm for the to-go business, so much so that Pellum built a dedicated to-go window on the north side of the building.

“We would have loved to have a drive-through, but there was just no place to put it,” he said.

The Elbow Room’s brief life as an event space was over, though, crippled by COVID-19. Pellum is reinventing it again, this time as a speakeasy.

“I wanted to get a liquor license, because we were letting people bring their own in, so I was losing money there,” he said. “I put a kitchen in, did all the necessary things to get a liquor license and a food license.”

The space will be reservation only, serving curated dinners and higher-end liquor and wine with a capacity of about 40 people.

“I see it as a special occasion type thing, you come in and you’re there for several hours,” he said. “It’s the total opposite of (Zachary’s), so I won’t be competing with myself.”

Pellum said there is no firm timeline for opening.

“I’m just taking it day-by-day,” he said. “It’s not a situation where I’ve got to open to pay my bills, and if I’m going to do it, I want to do it right.”

Ongoing expansion

With business “better than ever” and setting records at Zachary’s, Pellum is again looking to expand, this time into the old Rollins-Crigler building. Owned by the city since 2013, it has sat largely unused.

Pellum said while he has concrete plans in mind for the building, he didn’t want to talk about them.

“We want to make it a surprise,” he said.

Continuing charity work

In the meantime, Pellum continues his charity work alongside running the restaurant.

“Without a doubt we’re having more people come to us since COVID,” he said. “We’re seeing people who can’t pay their medical bills and rent; people who can’t afford funeral expenses. It’s made us reform our thinking on what events we’re going to do and who we’re going to help.”

In 2019, Pellum’s fundraisers were all for organizations: a robotics team, the Humane Society, a baseball team, the Columbus Arts Council and Main Street Columbus. In 2021, it’s a different story.

“We did six last year,” he said. “One was for Fish and Blues, which burned. The other five were medical or for families of people who had died. It’s hard to say yes or no to this particular event, but we try our best to put medical and funeral requests first.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” he said. “People bless you, so you turn around and help them.”

STORY BY BRIAN JONES

PHOTOS BY NICOLE BOWMAN-LAYTON