‘Mindful of every possible scenario’: Early Bird Biscuit Co. one year after Richmond water crisis

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Small business across Central Virginia were forced to close during the water crisis last January. Early Bird Biscuit Co. in The Fan, like many other restaurants, had to close for nearly a week.

While they’re back on their feet, the fear of something similar happening again is always on their mind. 

“I just have to be mindful of every possible scenario now," owner Tim Laxton said. "Every time I turn on the tap, I'm thinking you know, if a little loss of water pressure, I'm thinking.” 

Laxton opened Early Bird in 2014. A Virginia Commonwealth University alum, he was between jobs, looking for something to be his “gimmick.”

“It was the only thing that I knew how to do properly, and that was make biscuits.” A skill he learned from his grandmother.

Located at 119 North Robinson Street, there’s a steady stream of customers staff knows by name coming in and out.  

For the restaurant, and every other one, safe water is crucial. 

"In order to comply with all the safety standards with the health department we have to be able to sanitize our dishes, we have to be able to provide clean water for our baristas who’re making coffee," Laxton said. “So many things that you just don’t think about when it comes to a bakery.”

Laxton first heard there could be a potential water outage on Monday, January 6, 2025, from one of the bakery's baristas. 

“I was in complete denial," he said. "I actually argued with her about that and told her that it wasn’t happening, it was a vicious rumor.” 

He said the head baker was able to get some bottled water that day, another baker was hard at work using as much product as she could and as fast as possible. 

“We really didn’t have a good scope of what was going on until that afternoon," he said, thinking issues would last a maximum of 24 hours.  

After being closed for six days in January, the bakery lost thousands of dollars and inventory. Laxton said he and his team applied to receive grant money, but it had already dried up. 

He's since made changes to have something softer to land on, just in case. 

“I try to have some sort of padding when it comes to, you know, our payroll ‘cause these folks lost money because they weren’t able to work," he said.

Laxton credited the health department’s communication during the week they were closed.

"We got emails, we got phone calls, we had folks stop by," he said.

But he was disappointed with the city’s communication and is concerned repairs have not been made to the degree they should be. 

"They didn’t make us aware of things we should be doing, things we should not be doing," he said. “I don’t think the city was prepared for that, I know that they weren’t, and I know that when things like that happen there is no playbook.” 

On Wednesday, April 16, city officials announced that 117 of the small businesses that applied for its Small Business Recovery Grant Fund would each receive a $2,500 or $5,000 grant.