Dealing with the new normal: How restaurants are rebounding
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - When the Pandemic first started, we checked in with Jalisco’s Mexican Restaurant and The Firehouse Grill. Both restaurants have their dining room open, Friday afternoon, but they are still not back to normal quite yet.
"It's great (being open) but we also have a whole different new set of problems," Owner of The Firehouse Grill, Kevin La Fleur said. "Supply chain problems. You know we lost 15-percent of our workforce and we're trying to retrain. Just a bunch of stuff that's gonna take a while to work through."
At Firehouse, they are down 20-percent of their usual staff. At Jalisco’s, they are down 50-percent on servers, and tables are getting filled quickly.
“What's holding us a little bit back, it's just because we don't have enough tables," Jalisco’s Mexican Restaurant server, Luis Hernandez said. "That's pretty much the only reason. So we are ready to be open. We're ready to open up and every single table to be full. That's only thing we are waiting for.”
One thing both restaurants have in common is customers thanking them for being back open and taking the proper steps to keep everyone safe.
"I was like, how are we going to do this?," Hernandez said. "I think everything is just becoming the new normal now. So it's like you adjusting to now and whatever's next, we're ready for"
"People are fighting for a sense of normalcy," La Fleur said. "When they come here, they can find it and they also can feel safe in what we're doing. All the protocols, we are going above and beyond what the health department requires."
