CINCINNATI, Ohio— Many restaurants are closing by the day in Ohio, either temporarily or permanently. But, in Cincinnati, one restaurant is actually reopening.
- Keystone Bar and Grill closed its Hyde Park location in December because of a small lunch crowd and decreased sales in the winter
- The location reopened during the pandemic to continue to serve the community during this time
- Restaurant management says sales are better at the Hyde Park location now than their other two locations and if they continue that way, they are considering reopening permanently.
Keystone Bar and Grill in Hyde Park is doing the opposite of what a lot of restaurants in the area are doing. After closing in December, they decided to reopen to serve the community during the pandemic.
Keystone Bar and Grill has three locations across the Cincinnati area. But when staff noticed a dip in sales at the Hyde Park location, especially with the lunchtime crowd and in the winter, they decided to close their doors.
“There’s seven days in a week and we weren’t always able to be busy enough on all those seven days in order to justify staying open,” Dan Cronican the Owner of Keystone Bar and Grill said.
Cronican says the location opened in 2011. He shares they had some regulars that weren’t happy with the decision.
“People were upset,” he said. “And they were not happy with us that they were not able to come and get their pitchers of mimosas on Sunday and sit outside on the patio.”
But when the pandemic hit, Cronican had a new idea. Since the company still owned the building and it was still vacant, he decided to open it back up for carry out. He says the major benefit is bringing back more people on the payroll.
“We were able to bring back another half a dozen, maybe close to ten people now who have been able to come back to work because of opening up this location,” Cronican said.
Cronican says the support of the Hyde Park and Cincinnati community has been incredible and he’s looking forward to continuing to serve them.
“Without lunch or beer carryout and still being able to do similar sales, we’re pretty encouraged by that,” he said. “So I think that says a lot about this neighborhood really wanting to support us and being happy that we’re back open.”
Cronican says if the sales continue like they are right now, he’s hopeful that this location could reopen permanently.
