Deli opens at Metfield

The Bella Vista Property Owners Association is back in the food service business, although on a small scale. The Metfield Deli opened quietly last week with a menu featuring pizza, hot dogs and handmade sandwiches. There's also a breakfast menu featuring bacon, egg and cheese biscuits and yogurt.

So far the pro shop and the grill are sharing two employees most days, manager Shirley Hatfield said, but she expects they will need to add an employee as business picks up. She has worked for the POA for 30 years, but never in food service, she said. She and her staff are still learning about the food service part of the job.

Eventually, they will be able to sell beer by the can, she said. She's waiting for the beer license.

One of the meeting rooms has been turned into a dining room so that customers will have a place to sit down. Hatfield expects golfers will use the tables to have a snack and tally their scores after they finish a round. The Deli also gets some business from the membership services staff who share the building and occasionally, the card players come in to buy a beverage.

The last full-service restaurant at Metfield, Sabore's, moved out in December 2012. In January 2014, the restaurant space became the offices of the POA's membership services.

At one time, the POA operated restaurants in their clubhouses, but they weren't always successful. In 2003, the Food, Beverage and Clubs Division lost $1,436,622, according to the organization's 2003 budget. That was when the decision was made to start leasing the facilities.

In 2013, then-General Manager Tommy Bailey started looking at opening small grill operations in some of the clubhouses. At that point, only Kingsdale had a successful clubhouse restaurant. A committee was formed to look at the restaurant issue. Later that year a contract was signed with operator Nik Paunov to open Cafe Amici at the Country Club.

Bailey and the board considered a grill for the Highland's Clubhouse too, but a meeting at the facility in early 2015 drew 300 members many of whom supported the concept of full service restaurant. In October 2015 Mason-Dixon Cafe opened there.

There are other changes coming at Metfield. The exercise equipment will soon move from the Dogwood Room into the former dining room. Membership services moved from the dining room into the former kitchen after that space was renovated last fall. That leaves the Dogwood room available for card players and for exercise classes.

When all the changes are complete, a grand opening will be held, board members promised. Employees think that will take place in about two weeks.