Showing its chops: 42-year-old steakhouse shifts quickly to butcher and grocer to keep cash flowing

While other Triad restaurants scrambled for ideas to survive the Covid-19 pandemic, Ryan's Restaurant executed what proved to be a solid plan. Though he had followed news reports on the pandemic for a month or so, Ryan's owner Dennis Carter admits that the pandemic's sudden arrival in mid-March and the wave of panic and shutdowns surprised him. So after work on March 16, Carter and his five full-time managers met to discuss their plans to keep the restaurant afloat. The result was an evolving…