VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Tuesday afternoon, Pollard's Chicken & Catering shared tough news for the Hampton Roads restaurant chain - the business would be closing its Witchduck Road location permanently.
Wednesday, in an interview with 13News Now, the operations manager for Pollard's Chicken Restaurant shared her remorse about the closing.
“We’re all very saddened about having to close one of our restaurants," Mary Gagnon said. "Open since 1996 - it’s just a very sad and hard time for everybody."
This is one of the eight Pollard's Chicken restaurants stretched across Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth.
The location is set to be shut down on Thursday - New Year's Eve.
Customer Joy Clark said she'd have to "up" her home-cooking game, to make up for the loss.
"It’s very disappointing to know that they are closing because of the COVID," Clark said. "I would like for them to remain open, if any way possible."
A spokesperson first shared the news on Facebook. In that post, they said the company would be "doing everything we can to relocate all our employees" to one of the other branches.
They cited the restaurant's history of supporting churches, schools, charities and the American Cancer Society in their announcement.
"This pandemic has been hard on our restaurants and we are asking you to continue to support our remaining restaurants," the post said.
Gagnon explained Wednesday they are thinking about applying for additional funding from the CARES Act.
On Tuesday, Governor Ralph Northam added $20 million to help small businesses apply financial assistance.
"We’ve got our accountant looking into everything that’s available to help us through this difficult time," Gagnon said. "We do realize it’s not over with yet."