Living through a pandemic can be difficult to say the least. But restaurants have been facing the tall task of keeping the doors open in a time where staying home is encouraged.
Yallah Taco, a local favorite of State College residents, is one of those restaurants.
“We survived it, but we had a lot of losses. Our business went down like, 80 percent, that’s for sure.”
Hithem Hiyajneh, the owner of Yallah Taco and other restaurants in the area, has taken steps towards trying to get things back to normal in his businesses. Using tactics such as social distancing, masking indoors, and offering outdoor dining for customers. While Yallah’s Calder Way location was not affected as greatly by the coronavirus outbreak, Yallah’s College Avenue location had some steeper hills to climb.
But Hiyajney isn’t one to back down from a challenge. In fact, he often looks for the bright side.
“In a crisis, there are always opportunities,” he said. “The Taco Bell closed, so we made a bid for it. The church was actually very graceful to us, trying to help us out, like ‘Hey, we can give you a couple months for free. But things took a bit longer than they were supposed to be. But yeah, I’d say that it was a great decision to open this location.”
But despite all of this, Yallah is still a favorite of the local population.
Kierstin Ricciardi, a junior at Penn State studying Forensics Psychology, is one of the local fans.
“It was really good, and I got a burrito. And it was amazing, I still have some more left.”
Me in front of Yallah
Yallah opened its College Avenue location in March 2020, replacing the Taco Bell; the same Taco Bell where students held a candlelight vigil in the restaurant’s honor. But over a year later, not many people are upset with its’ new replacement.