“Aw it feels great,” said Chris Leibel at Smokey’s Pub n’ Grill in East Bethel. “It’s been a long few weeks here. Our staff is ecstatic to get back to work and see our customers again; it feels great to be open.”
Customers like Kathy Paavola missed the social contact. “I’m glad to be able to socialize with friends, come in and enjoy the atmosphere. I love it here,” she said.
At Smokey’s the barbecue take out business helped financially. Owner Chris Leibel says curbside was busy, especially around the holidays. But they still had to furlough more than half the staff. He said that was the hardest part.
“We did take a hit, I mean everyone did. We were forced to shut down at short notice,” says Leibel. “We had to throw out product and then opening we had to replenish our product and that gets expensive.”
The good news is all 42 workers returned to the job. Other restaurants we talked to said they had to replace some workers who found other kinds of work during the indoor closure.
Restaurants are still limited to 50 percent capacity, but Leibel looks forward to the time when he can fully re-open.
“There’s light at the end of the tunnel now that there’s vaccines out there and our state seems to be going the right direction with the infection rate,” he said. “We hope that keeps on because I know in others part of the country that’s not the case.”
For now this is a high spot in what Leibel says has been a roller coaster year.
