‘Perfect wrong timing’: The Woody fights to survive after reopening during pandemic
When The Woody first opened, in 2011, it faced one of the country’s worst economic recessions.
When it reopened in early 2020, it faced one of the worst health crises the world has ever seen. And now, like countless small businesses, the popular Main Street dance hall is struggling through the ensuing economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Just perfect, perfect wrong timing,” said Woody Windham, who co-owns and lent his name to one of Columbia’s signature dancing venues. “Oh man, it was going to be great. And it was really good for a few minutes there, and then the virus took us out of business. It really did.”
A career radio personality and entertainer, Windham always dreamed of owning a nightclub. With his wife, Jean, and daughters, Jennifer Windham and MacKenzie Winn, the family has made that dream come true with The Woody.
But the coronavirus pulled the dance floor from under their feet. Having re-reopened amid the pandemic in June, the Windhams are fighting to keep The Woody — and Woody Windham’s dream — alive.
“We’ve always been a family that, somehow, we’ll always make it work,” said Jennifer Windham, who handles much of The Woody’s day-to-day operations. “We might not have good timing. ... (But) I know we’ll do great here once COVID’s gone.”
Before the coronavirus struck, The Woody was out of business for half of 2019 as it searched for a new home after its lease ended in Columbia’s Vista district. At the beginning of 2020, the 8-year-old dance hall had just landed a new 10-year lease in a high-profile location in the 1600 block of Main Street.
The Woody reopened its doors in mid-February and soon had people lining up down the sidewalk. After seven long months, The Woody had gotten its groove back — but only for four weeks.
Like other restaurants, bars and venues across the state, The Woody abruptly shut down in mid-March as fast-spreading cases of COVID-19 took hold across South Carolina. By mid-summer, the virus infected more than 100,000 South Carolinians and caused more than 2,000 deaths in the state.
“We just thought maybe this will only last for a few weeks,” Jennifer Windham said. “From day one, I was worried about my staff, because the food service industry has taken the hardest hit in all of this.”
Another three months passed with no business, no income. By mid-June, as restaurants and bars began to reopen with smaller crowds and more face masks, the Windhams felt they were ready — and felt they met the necessary guidelines — to open The Woody again.
Jennifer Windham told the staff not to expect much of a crowd that first weekend, especially since they were operating at no more than 50% capacity. “We did OK. It wasn’t terrible,” she said.
Business has picked up some but stayed relatively slow in the weeks since. Wednesday salsa and Thursday shag nights have restarted — “I couldn’t believe the shaggers were so happy to come out,” Jennifer Windham said, adding that seeing regulars return has been like a family reunion.
But still, business is nowhere near what it once was.
“It was a little bit better this past weekend, just a little bit, so I was kind of encouraged. But man, it’s a mess,” Woody Windham said. “We invested over a half million dollars, and it’s all we’ve got. So it’s got to make it.”
In addition to the financial challenge of running a small business during the pandemic, The Woody is dealing with the unusual cultural challenge of face masks and social distancing.
“I feel like the governor has left a lot of gray area in all of his mandates, and because he’s done that, it’s been difficult for a lot of business owners in general to follow what he says,” Jennifer Windham said. “It’s very difficult when you don’t have leadership really telling you straightforward, ‘This is what you need to do.’”
All hospitality businesses in Columbia are required to enforce the use of face coverings by customers and staff, as face coverings have proved to be effective at lessening the spread of coronavirus. The Woody is enforcing the requirement, but not all customers are happy to comply, Jennifer Windham said. And more gray areas open up when customers hit the dance floor, often with drinks in hand and masks off, she noted.
As for social distancing, the club’s staffers work to keep groups from gathering around the bar, Windham said. And for the most part, guests are dancing with the people they come with and keeping to themselves. But distancing can be difficult to adapt to, as The Woody’s highly social atmosphere is part of its charm.
“The main thing for us, we were trying to find a way for everyone to be positive in such a negative world,” Jennifer Windham said. “We wanted to make sure when people come to our place, they felt safe and felt not only that, but that they could have a good time. And it’s been very difficult to get that across to people.”
Looking ahead, Jennifer Windham is praying for a coronavirus vaccine and crossing her fingers that her favorite night of the year at The Woody, Halloween, won’t be canceled.
Like his daughter, Woody Windham is uncertain but hopeful about the future of his namesake business.
“Everybody in the family’s worried enough for me. I’m not a worrier,” he said.
He recently added a new word to his vocabulary, he said: Nikhedonia.
“Nikhedonia is a feeling you get when you imagine something good in the future, and that’s what I’ve got for that club,” he said. “Of course, I’d like to see the business come back like the good old days, people dancing and having a good time. I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not. I just have no idea.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
