Restaurant in Grants Pass says business is booming after county risk level drops to ‘high’

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Taprock Northwest Grill opened back in 2009.

It’s known for its seafood and salad entrées.

After nearly 4 months of only doing takeout, the restaurant in Grants Pass opened its doors for indoor dining Friday, in accordance with the county’s new risk level.

“I’m super excited, staffing has been a little bit difficult, trying to get everybody back up, trained and ready, that’s one of the things we’re facing right now,” said general manager, Ryan Carter.

He says not everyone was able to come back to work, but the restaurant employs around 80 staff.

“We’re just thankful to be open for indoor dining, it’s been a long time.” In fact, re-opening has been great for the restaurant’s business, despite only being allowed 25% capacity indoors.

“Our first day we were able to do double than what we expected to do, so we were double last year’s sales and it was nice to do that,” said Carter.

Carter says the sales were up by 200%.

“The best part about it watching to see the staff members come back to work, you can just see how excited they are.”

Though things are off to a great start, Carter says there are concerns about closing up again if the county returns to extreme risk.

“We do have a 2-week comfort so we know we will be open for at least the month as of Friday, so we are excited to have that in place but that is a worry of ours because it’s difficult to bring staff back on and then kick them off. It’s really difficult on the whole restaurant system,” Carter said.

Of course, the restaurant is following strict safety protocols.

“We’re making sure we get the table spacing right with 6 feet apart, that’s something we changed our entire floor plan for,” he said.

 

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