RINCON — In order to serve their customers better during the COVID-19 pandemic, some local restaurants are extending their menus.

The additions include cleaning supplies and toilet paper, helping people avoid crowded and depleted supermarkets..

Huddle House at 460 S. Columbia Ave., Rincon, recently opened the “Huddle Market. It sells groceries such as bulk meat, produce and, yes, toilet paper while at the same time introducing Family Meals-To-Go, family-sized meals available for takeout, pickup and delivery.

“We started the Huddle Market on April 1,” Huddle House Director of Operations Christ Watkins said. “It’s something that we continue to plan to do to support our Rincon community and the other communities that we are in as well.”

At least 58 Huddle House locations have started Huddle Markets. Forty-eight of them, including the one in Rincon, are corporately owned.

“We own our own distribution center and it has been very understanding of this,” Watkins said. 

The Huddle Markets sell cases of Huddle Burgers, bacon, rib-eye steaks and chicken breasts, as well as staples such as paper towels, toilet paper, ketchup and fresh vegetables. Watkins said storing the extra products and moving them hasn’t been a problem.

“These are products that we sell in our day-to-day operations,” Watkins said. “Most of our locations are getting about two trucks a week to help with the supply. In the general area, we might have some restaurants that are near each other and they share the product.

“We can meet the needs.”

All Huddle Market items are all being offered alongside the brand’s cooked-to-order homestyle meals available for takeout, including the new Family Meals-To-Go that help cope with COVID-19 shelter-in-place mandates.

The meals offer some of the brand’s most popular breakfast and dinner entrees packaged, portioned and priced for families of four. All Family Meals-To-Go are being offered for 20 percent off through Thursday.

 “We are definitely doing our part to learn how to do curbside and delivery service,” Watkins said. “The main thing I’ve learned is how involved in our communities we are and how we can serve our communities in different ways.”

For more information on Huddle Market or Family Meals-To-Go, call 912-8266940 or visit https://www.huddlehouse.com.

The Tin Fin, located at 6014 Ga. Hwy 21 South, Rincon, has been selling grocery items along with its coastal cuisine since March 23.

“I don’t know who started it but we are definitely doing it,” said Shaunda Clark, who owns The Tin Fin with her husband, Ray. 

Clark noted that a change in the law was required before restaurants became eligible to serve groceries.

“It’s been super helpful to the community,” she said. “I’ve got twenty cases of toilet paper.”

Selling groceries isn’t a big money maker for The Tin Fin — it charges $6 for a gallon of milk that costs it $5.13 — but it helps in another way.

“It’s not profitable itself but it’s very profitable if people who buy toilet paper will also get some chicken fingers,” she said.

Clark said The Tin Fin is holding its own despite operating with a limited staff.

“We are trying to promote social distancing so we created some family meals so that we wouldn’t have so many individual tickets,” she said. “Those have worked really well and they seem to be popular with the community.”

Clark and her staff, which wear masks made by Jennifer May, deliver meals to customers who park in specially marked areas in front of the restaurant. They also can deliver to people’s residences.

 Orders can be placed at https://thetinfin.com/ or by calling 295-5837.