WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — The countdown to Christmas was on in the Historic Valley Junction. Several stores stayed open through the afternoon hoping to capture some last minute foot traffic.
Despite some frigid temperatures, Leslie Stensrud was out with her daughter hoping to pick up some last minute gifts. "We're just doing some last minute shopping. We wanted to support out local small businesses, so we made it a goal to get out here an buy some gifts," she said.
Down the street, G. Mig's 5th Street Pub was open for anyone who pre-ordered a take-n-bake meal. "We’re sending the instructions and everything in pans ready to go. It's pretty cut and dry so that they can have an easier holiday," said owner George Migliero.
The restaurant has 25 curbside orders scheduled for pick-up today. It might not seem like a lot, but each of those orders can feed a family of eight.
"For Christmas we changed it up a bit. We wanted to make it so that we could have take and bake so that people who are going to be together on in their houses would be able to have there families together," Migliero said.
This couldn't come at a better time. Despite his popularity and loyal customers, he said he is still operating at 50% capacity because of the pandemic.
G. Mig's is a fabulous restaurant with great food, so I wanted to shop local.," said Linda Foster who stopped by to pick up her Christmas dinner.
Like many restaurant owners, Migliero has gotten the hang of curbside pick-up, so Thursday pick-ups were done in a couple of hours. That's good for business and good for his employees.
"It doesn’t put a big tax on my staff on these holidays because I know they want to be with there families," he said.