STATE COLLEGE, PA – Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, many businesses across the country were impacted drastically. Weather it was a dramatic loss in sales or revenue, laying off employees or shuting down. Downtown State College was no different with how the pandmeic altered resturants and business.
Yallah Taco, a local authentic mexican cusisne, has been serving the community with a varirty of dishes. Through thriving the pandmeic, owner Hitman Hiyajneh has seen the business succeed despite having troubles.
“We survived it but we had a lot of losses. Our business went down almost like 80 percent in the first year.” said Hiyajneh.
Despite the challenges that COVID-19 brought, Hiyajneh has capitalized on the oppurtunnties that was given to him.
Hiyajneh said “In crisis, there’s always opportunities. “That’s why, when the Taco Bell closed, we made a bid for it. The Church was actually very graceful to us. They were trying to help us out like, ‘Hey, we’ll give you a few months for free.’ But the thing took a lot longer than it was supposed to be. But yeah, it was a great decision to open this location.”
With the increased number of vaccines and vacations occuring, more and more resturants like Yallah Taco can return to a scene quite like prior to the pandmic. But it will take each community do its part in the continuous fight aginst COVID-19.