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Dining in options begin to dwindle

COVID-19 forces local restaurants to evaluate operations

T-R PHOTO BY THOMAS NELSON Smokin’ G’s owners, Kimberly and Jerry Gratopp are closing the dining room for the second time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Other Marshalltown restaurants are also making changes.

On March 17 dining rooms restaurants across Iowa closed; near the end of May many reopened their doors to the public, but now as COVID-19 cases increase several are closing doors again.

“Businesses are making decisions based on what they are capable of doing right now, while keeping staff and customers safe,” said Lynn Olberding, Marshalltown Chamber of Commerce President. “The decisions they are having to make are not easy ones and not ones that business owners take lightly.”

Along Marshalltown’s Main Street at least three restaurants have closed their dining rooms — Ocean City, Zeno’s and Smokin’ G’s BBQ.

“COVID-19 continues to impact local businesses, as new information comes out regularly,” Olberding said. “I foresee that this will be the trend for a while, businesses may change hours, sanitation procedures, mask requirements as positive cases and/or hospitalizations increase or decrease.”

The need to sanitize the dining room and bathrooms combined because of the pandemic and being short staffed led Smokin’ G’s owners, Kimberly and Jerry Gratopp, to close the dining room Friday.

“We were just spreading the few people we had here too thin,” Kimberly said. “It was a combination of things that we were fighting to maintain.”

No one on staff at Smokin’ G’s tested positive for COVID-19 and the Gratopps wanted to keep it that way.

“I wanted to keep my staff healthy,” Kimberly said. “We don’t want to slow down our business.” They want to stay busy and keep their staff employed. By closing their dining room, they are able to take a step back, regroup and operate their restaurant their own way.

Smokin’ G’s will continue to offer delivery, catering and carry-out services.

“We were doing well,” Kimberly said. “We just needed to regroup a little bit.”

Smokin’ G’s closed along with other restaurants in Iowa when Gov. Kim Reynolds issued her emergency proclamation in March.

“We got 15 minutes notice to lay-off half of our staff and shut-down our dining room,” Kimberly said.

Around the end of May, restaurant dining rooms were permitted to reopen, but the Gratopps waited a couple weeks longer to open their doors.

“To make sure we were ready and had time to train our staff and because we were going to be gone part of that time,” Kimberly said. “It went fairly smooth.”

The number of positive cases of COVID-19 have gone up with 97 news cases emerging this week, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

“People are getting sick and we need to try to not be part of that problem, but be part of the solution,” Kimberly said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

As more COVID-19 cases are reported in Marshalltown, more businesses have had to make changes and some have been forced to close their doors again.

“That’s why it is so important for community members to support our local businesses in the manner in which they are comfortable and able,” Olberding said. “Carry-out, delivery, curbside pick-up and online ordering continues to be offered for a lot of our local businesses, if someone is uncomfortable going into a store or eating in a restaurant.”

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Contact Thomas Nelson at (641)753-6611 or tnelson@timesrepublican.com

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