Restaurant owner fights back after COVID, reinvents himself and his business | Local News

And even harder to pass by.

A small but steady stream of passersby, many who already knew Mueller through his nine years running a Pilot Mountain fixture called the Mountainview Restaurant, sidled up with variations of the same greeting seasoned with a couple basic questions.

When do you open? … What’s for lunch? … Good luck!

The answer, delivered with the confident smile of a man who’s weathered a financial storm touched off by the COVID lockdown, was equally to the point.

“Thank you. It’s been a long time coming,” Mueller said. “We’ll be here Saturday for Hometown Heroes. Come on back.”

The fact that Mueller chose an occasion on Memorial Day weekend honoring military veterans and first responders for his “comeback” was equal parts happenstance, good timing and deliberate choice

The truck, which he’s dubbed “My Kitchen,” had its final inspection scheduled two days before Hometown Heroes. The celebration would be in Pilot Mountain, his adopted hometown.

Mueller also is a proud Navy man, which is evident in details large and small ranging from the truck’s dark blue paint scheme to the anchor sticker affixed to a propane tank.

“Noticed that, huh?” he said. “The Navy was an important part of my life. I was an information systems technician — IT. Surface warfare qualified.”

Some of the things he learned (and had reinforced) in the service came in handy in late spring of 2020 when widespread COVID lockdowns laid siege to the restaurant industry.

Mueller instinctively knew what was about to happen and made the difficult choice to shutter the Mountain View after a nine-year run.

He owned the restaurant and everything in it but not the building in which he operated it. Rent, already high, would be near impossible to meet without steady in-person business.

“That was hard,” he said. “It was seven days a week, 10 and 12 hours a day, and then … nothing.”

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Mueller picked himself up and got busy. He took another time-consuming job, managing the kitchen for a chain restaurant in Winston-Salem. While making the long commute, he began thinking about his next move.

When COVID vaccines became widely available, the pandemic morphed into something more manageable — 1 million American deaths notwithstanding.

Opportunity, in the form of a food truck put up for sale in Gastonia for about $60,000, honked late last year.

Mueller already knew food and how to run a business. He’d cultivated loyalty among some longtime employees, too, so hiring wouldn’t be an issue.

“It’s like running a factory, an assembly line, and about making sure your system is in place to operate as efficiently as possible,” he said.

The byzantine world of rules and regulation, as it pertains to food trucks, was another matter. Food trucks have to conform to state health law, which means that their owners need a “commissary arrangement” — a deal with a brick-and-mortar food business that provides access to running water and refrigeration, among other things.

With the goodwill that comes with being part of a community, he had no trouble lining that up. After that, getting ready to roll was a matter of fine tuning, tending to such things as getting the kitchen exactly the way he wanted it, planning the menu — classic American fare — and naming his truck.

Lessons learned during the pandemic and a lot of soul searching about life/work balance led Mueller to christen his venture “My Kitchen.”

“Because it’s mine,” he explained. “Nobody can take it from me. I don’t have to worry about rent. I can set my own hours, work as much as I want when I want and have time for other things.”

So now, if he’s of a mind to, Mueller can jump on his bike and ride the quiet roads near his home. He can visit old friends in his Maryland hometown or spend a couple days at the beach if he wants.

The long pandemic and attendant shutdown exacted a toll on nearly everyone. Coronavirus closed Mueller’s business but opened his eyes to other possibilities.

“COVID can’t stop me or shut me down,” he said.