Utah Restaurants Open Dine-In Service After Restrictions Lifted

SANDY, Utah – Several of Utah’s favorite restaurants have opened up their dining rooms for the first time in six weeks. Others needed a little more time to follow the guidelines set by the Salt Lake County Health Department.

One that opened Friday was Jim’s Family Restaurant, which has been a family-run business for 38 years.

Usual customers like Sandie Lister were happy to get back in the doors.

“I said, ‘Call and see if Jim’s is open,’ because it’s supposed to start opening today, and she said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said ‘We’re going to Jim’s. I miss the Ice Tea,’” Lister said.

Before Jim’s could open to customers on Friday, the first order of business was making sure all employees were healthy. Part of their new normal included checking each employees’ temperature to make sure they didn’t have symptoms of COVID-19.

Jim’s owner, Mike Fuskandrakis, said they’ve opened up all six of their locations, but it was hardly business as usual. They weren’t as busy as normal, as customers adjust back to going inside.

“(It was) slow. I think customers are still a little nervous,” he said.

The  coronavirus pandemic has made the new normal a little unnerving, but Fuskandrakis said they want their customers to know they are within the guidelines set by the Salt Lake County Health Department.

“Masks, gloves… you know, we have sanitizer stations throughout the restaurant,” he said.

Meanwhile, Market Street Grill was taking the weekend to prepare for dine-in service to start on Monday for their locations.

“We’re ready tomorrow, but quite frankly we have had some problems with restocking the restaurants,” said Fred Boutwell.

For the time being, folks at Jim’s were just happy to have a place to sit down and eat again.

“It’s exciting to be able to come out,” said Lister.

Jim’s Family Restaurant has adjusted their hours to Sunday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.