Crystal Cafe co-owner Jennifer Carpenter prepares dough for pepperoni rolls and cinnamon rolls Friday in the restaurant’s kitchen. The Crystal is open Saturdays and Sundays now after being closed for months as Carpenter and her husband J.R. tried to determine the best way to move forward during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — For years, the Crystal Cafe has served breakfast and lunch at Fourth and Market streets six days a week, closing on Sundays.

For the last three weeks, the restaurant has been open Saturdays and Sundays only, welcoming customers for the first time since early June.

“We’re not making money, but we’re limiting our losses, I think, with this arrangement,” said J.R. Carpenter, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Jennifer.

Initial efforts in the spring to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus led to West Virginia restaurants being limited to pickup or carryout only. They were given the go-ahead to reopen at 50 percent capacity in May, and Carpenter gave it a shot with the Crystal Cafe beginning June 1.

A few days later, he opted to close down again, saying at the time, it would cost him more to keep the restaurant open a week than let it sit idle for two months.

But Carpenter has continued to monitor activity levels downtown. Prior to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases, he said he’d noticed more traffic on the weekends, with additional cars at the Blennerhassett Hotel and more folks walking and jogging in the area.

“We thought we’d try to take advantage of that since we have a little bit broader customer base,” Carpenter said. “We’ve decided to push forward and try it, and we’ve had a good response.”

Wendy Shriver, executive director of Downtown PKB, said her organization has been using social media to encourage folks to do their Christmas shopping at downtown businesses, for example by buying gift cards for restaurants.

“We’ve been promoting pretty heavily for people to come downtown,” she said. “We’re just trying to help support all those business owners.”

Shriver noted an increase in downtown activity last week due to the Small Business Saturday promotion, sales at the Parkersburg Art Center and Artsbridge and a Christmas photo shoot fundraiser for Downtown PKB. The Greater Parkersburg Convention and Visitors Bureau has also been running commercials encouraging people to shop small, she said.

While the Crystal has regular customers who came back during that brief window in June, a significant portion of its business comes from people who work downtown. With most Highmark West Virginia and Bureau of Fiscal Service employees still working from home, the customer base just isn’t what it used to be.

“To do that for six days a week, it’s a tremendous loss,” Carpenter said. “(Now) we’re just doing two.”

For now, the hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, but Carpenter said they’ll adjust depending on demand.

“We’re hoping the vaccine comes through soon and this thing runs its course,” Carpenter said. “As workers start coming back, we can start opening more days.”

But he said he also has to consider every option, including moving to a location that will provide more traffic.

“To sit and hold my breath, I’ve been doing that entirely too long now,” Carpenter said.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.