After dealing with the pandemic, local business such as Exo and Tap & Bottle on North Sixth Avenue are trying to find ways to bring in customers with construction around Sixth Avenue and Seventh Street.

 Rebecca Sasnett, Arizona Daily Star

Amy Smith and her partners at Exo Roast Co. on North Sixth Avenue want to make lemonade from the lemons they were dealt with the road construction just outside their front door.

Instead of curling up in the fetal position and waiting out the project, which will keep the intersection of North Sixth Avenue and East Seventh Street blocked off through early next spring, Smith, her husband Doug and partner/coffee roaster Chris Byrne are joining forces with their neighbor Tap & Bottle to come up with creative events to keep their businesses alive.

“I need to be positive about it and have fun with it," Amy Smith said Friday, five days into the monthslong project that will eventually connect Interstate 10 and the Barraza-Aviation Parkway. "One thing that’s great about it is the street cul-de-sacs right there at the intersection. There are no cars at the end of the street and it’s just a lovely, serene environment.”

Next door at Tap & Bottle, 403 N. Sixth Ave., owner Rebecca Safford is spitballing plans for a block party with Smith and other outdoor events to bring in customers from the neighborhood and beyond.

She's not worried yet that customers who have been loyal to the downtown bar since it opened in 2013 will be dissuaded by the road closure. But she does worry that as time goes by, some might look at the big "Road Closed" sign at the intersection of Sixth and Seventh and decide it's not worth the bother.

"We are very much a neighborhood bar," said Safford, who owns a second Tap & Bottle location on the northwest side and Westbound at the MSA Annex. "We feel like people are very supportive of us. I just don't want people to get frustrated."

City crews came in Monday, Aug. 30, and put up road cones and erected the sign along with a blue sign that lets people know that the businesses along Sixth Avenue were open throughout the project.

The Sixth Avenue/Seventh Street work is the final phase of the 30-monthlong, four-lane Downtown Links project that city officials say will enhance transportation for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists. The project includes safer railroad crossings that should ease traffic congestion around the downtown railroad tracks as well as improved sidewalks, bike lanes and multi-use paths.

Smith and Safford support the improvements, but both question the timing, coming on the heels of the pandemic. Tap & Bottle and Exo were just starting to catch their breath after losing a good chunk of their business to pandemic protocols that forced them to close their dining rooms.

Smith and her partners downsized their business as a result of the pandemic after they closed their 75-seat El Crisol Mezcaleria & Venue, a mescal bar and performance space where customers also could get food prepared in the space's commercial kitchen. They gave up the space, which they operated for about a year, last November and have incorporated the mezcal bar into Exo in the evenings Thursdays through Saturdays.

The bar and restaurant made up about 30% of Exo's revenues, Smith said, but with not having to pay rent or the food and labor costs, the loss didn't sting as bad. When she crunches the numbers, Smith said she believes Exo's business is where it was before the bar expansion in fall 2019. 

But with the havoc COVID's delta variant is wrecking, Smith said she doesn't have a clear picture of what impact the road closure is having on her business.

"Week to week, it changes. Before COVID, you could make these predictions year over year" about business patterns, from the summer slowdown to the uptick when students and winter visitors returned in early fall, she said. "All bets are off now.”

Just around the corner at Anello, 222 E. Sixth St., the pizzeria's chef-owner Scott Girod sees the latest round of construction as a continuation of what he has been experiencing on Sixth Street since work began on the multistory Union on 6th apartment complex in early 2020. Had he not seen the "Road Closed" sign on his way to work Monday, he would not have blinked twice, he said.

"I guess I'm just used to living with it. There's always construction," he said last Thursday as he prepped pizza dough for that's night's dinner crowd. "But nothing compares to the pandemic."

Girod estimates he lost about half his usual business during the pandemic after he closed his dining room in March 2020 and switched to takeout only. Takeout had not been a big part of his business pre-pandemic; most days, his small 30-seat dining room was full throughout the night, with folks waiting their turn by having a beer at neighboring Crooked Tooth Brewing Co.

Even after he was able to reopen his dining room, Girod said his takeout business had remained so popular that last December he installed a walk-up takeout window. 

Days into the latest round of road closures and detours, Girod said he hasn't seen a real drop in business yet.

"People are still coming downtown,"  he said. "We're still busy."

Exo's Smith said there is a tiny silver lining to the one-two punch of the pandemic and road work: People in Tucson are supportive of the businesses that survived the challenges and came out on the other side, she said.

"So many businesses have shut down and the small businesses that have stayed afloat, I think people are so appreciative of that,” she said.

On Saturday, Sept. 11, Smith and Stafford will team up for the inaugural Cargo Bike Round Up for people who ride or admire cargo or E-bikes. It is the first in what Smith said will be a monthly, family-friendly community event.

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Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch