Downtown Dallas restaurant is selling drive-through COVID-19 tests - The Dallas Morning News

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Hop on the website for a French restaurant in Dallas and you’ll find wedges of cheese, a soufflé kit, a plate of escargot ravioli and ... a COVID-19 test. BTG, the to-go operation for Bullion in downtown Dallas, is getting creative during the pandemic.

The reason the restaurant group is selling $200 drive-through COVID-19 tests is twofold, says Jason Cotton, vice president of hospitality for the Labora Group, BTG’s parent company:

“We’re providing something that seems to be abundantly needed in our area,” he says. “And then obviously, it’ll bring more eyeballs to the marketplace.”

That “marketplace” for BTG is an online grocery delivery service that sells French food and wine. For $36, customers can purchase a Wagyu burger kit online, then pay to have it delivered to their home. Its cocktail kits are especially popular, Cotton says, and customers will find little bottles of ingredients for make-your-own Old Fashioneds, Manhattans or margaritas.

BTG launched July 1, after Cotton and his team agreed that its flagship, fine-dining restaurant Bullion, should remain closed during the pandemic — but that the company needed to continue to connect with its customers. And make some money.

COVID-19 tests were officially added to the menu, if you will, on Aug. 11.

French restaurant Bullion has not reopened yet in downtown Dallas. The operators have decided to do high-end grocery delivery instead of trying to entice customers to their restaurant during the pandemic. Vice President of Hospitality Jason Cotton says "no discussions have even started" about reopening Bullion.(Jeffrey McWhorter / Special Contributor)

Cotton had already developed a relationship with Urgent HomeMD, the company administering the COVID-19 tests, because Cotton has purchased more than 100 tests to have his team of seven remaining employees tested once a week since May 1. He decided to tack on COVID-19 tests for customers, thinking it would be an item they wouldn’t ordinarily find from a restaurant.

So far, The Dallas Morning News has not heard of another restaurant in North Texas selling COVID-19 tests.

Cotton says “the goal, from the start, is to serve the community.” Near the beginning of the pandemic, his team served 20,000 meals to frontline workers and made 2,000 masks. This latest effort is “another way of continuing that support, in a different way,” he says.

It isn’t much of a moneymaker, he admits: He makes $10 from each $200 test.

The parking lot is located behind the gold-colored restaurant Bullion, near Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas.(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

The tests are a self-administered nose swab. Customers will buy the test online first, no insurance accepted. Time slots are handed out in 30-minute increments from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Customers will pay in advance and answer a few questions ahead of time, including their date of birth and symptoms. Customers then drive to the parking lot behind Bullion and will be directed to a physician standing outside. That person will be wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and will hand the customer a test tube with a screw cap on top and a cotton swab on a stick inside. The physician will instruct the customer to take his or her own nasal swab, which “doesn’t go all the way back to your brain” like many COVID-19 tests do, Cotton says. It’s more of a swirl inside the nose, which is considered a “non-invasive” test, according to the lab, Gene-IQ.

The swab goes back into the test tube, cap on, and the sample is handed to the physician.

Gene-IQ, based in The Colony, processes all of Urgent HomeMD’s COVID-19 tests. According to a report from Gene-IQ, the average turnaround time per 1,000 samples is about 25 hours. Turnaround time can vary wildly for COVID-19 tests. Some Texas labs have needed more than a week, although Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins tweeted recently that most local patients are getting test results in three days or less.

Cotton says he’ll have police officers on site in an effort to keep customers safe as they enter and exit. Upon exiting, those who got a nasal swab can also pick up their online orders. Maybe a cocktail to go with that COVID-19 test?

“After the [swab], they’ll complete the drive-through,” Cotton says. “And hopefully they’ll also pick up a gin and tonic kit and some fresh pasta.”

BTG food, drinks and COVID-19 tests are at toasttab.com/bullion-togo/v3. Customers must order in advance. Jason Cotton, vice president of hospitality for the restaurant group, is handing out his email address to anyone with questions about the tests: jcotton@labora.com. BTG’s drive-through COVID-19 testing takes place in the parking lot near 400 S. Record St., Dallas.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter at @sblaskovich.

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