Crookston’s restaurants are continuing to prepare for opening up indoor dining on Wednesday. Restaurants can open at 50 percent capacity inside with up to 250 people following social distancing guidelines. They can also have up to 250 people outside following the appropriate guidelines.
DRAFTS SPORTS BAR & GRILL
Drafts was closed Monday to do some prep work for reopening inside. Owner Jasmine Melsa said besides opening indoors Drafts will keep its expanded patio and curbside to go in place. “We’ll be reopening the indoors on Wednesday,” said Melsa. “We’ll have the seating at 50 percent capacity inside, the patio, and keep the curbside to go as well. We’re just going to see how busy things are and where the need is. The hours will be similar to what they were before maybe just slightly shorter days.”
EAGLES CLUB
The Crookston Eagles Club will reopen for the first time since March on Wednesday. Manager Jake Fee said even though patios were possible last week the Eagles Club didn’t have room to accommodate their customers. “We made the decision not to have outdoor seating,” said Fee. “We had pretty limited space and just wouldn’t have been able to accommodate our customers. So, we decided to wait until we could be indoors and come this Wednesday, we’ll be at 50 percent capacity. Still a lot of guidelines we have to follow with social distancing, our employees wearing facemasks, extra hand sanitizer and extra cleaning regiments will be doing up here. Definitely a little different but at the same time it’s going to be close to normal.”
Fee added there would be some slight changes to hours, while bingo will resume on Thursday nights. “We did slightly reduce our hours,” said Fee. “We’ll be doing 3-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. We do close Sundays and that’s normal for us. We’re going to try to bring back bingo on Thursdays at 7 p.m. and as of right now we’re not going to do Saturdays as we slowly try to ease back into it.”
I.C. MUGGS/MUGOO’S
I.C. Muggs and Mugoo’s will open up indoors on Wednesday at 4 p.m. before resuming their regular hours on Thursday. Owner Justin Paul said he’s looking forward to people being able to see the new bar inside and that they are currently working on new drink specials and a revamped menu. “Wednesday we’ll open 4 p.m. to close, right back to our regular hours, 4 p.m. – 1 a.m.,” said Paul. “The rest of the week it will be 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. We’re going to leave the patio the way it is, extended like that. We’re going to have a bunch of new drink specials and some new apps. We’re going to be revamping our menu, so when we get that all finalized it will be a good time. Just looking forward to seeing some people inside the building. They can come in and check out the new bar.”
SCOBEY’S PUB & GRUB AT CROOKSTON INN
Scobey’s Pub & Grub will open up in the afternoon and evenings beginning on Wednesday, while curbside will remain available said owner Laurie Stahlecker. “On Wednesday we will open up from 4-9 p.m. for the bar and restaurant,” said Stahlecker. “We are going to evaluate the 10 p.m. closing time for drinking. If we have people, we’ll stay open. If not, we’ll continue to close at 10 p.m. We are going to keep our curbside open, so Monday’s hours for curbside are 4-9 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. and Saturday is 4-9 p.m. as well.”
Stahlecker said they would not continue to offer the patio because of the difficulty they have with the wind in their location. “No,” said Stahlecker. “With it the way it is out here with the wind we can’t even keep the umbrellas in, so no, I don’t think we’re going to do that.”
TACO JOHN’S
Taco John’s will open up select hours for indoor dining and patio dining, while drive-through, curbside and mobile ordering will remain available throughout the day said manager Renee Voss. “We are going to open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday in our lobby,” said Voss. “So, it will be every other booth basically. We still will have our outside seating open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Same with our drive-through, mobile ordering, curbside pickup. Whatever you feel comfortable with we will be here to serve you.”
WONDERFUL LIFE FOODS
Wonderful Life Foods will continue to offer their patio seating and rearrange to allow their 50 percent capacity for indoor seating at the front of their store said owner Shawn Rezac. “On Wednesday, we’ll have our seating out front like we’ve done before with limitations like everybody else,” said Rezac. “We’re going to be doing a little rearranging to be at the 50 percent capacity. On top of that, just like everybody else, we’ve been doing extra cleaning, extra safety protocols to make everybody is safe including us that’s here in the store. Hours will be 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. During all of this we’ve luckily been able to stay open because we are considered a grocery store also on top of a deli/restaurant. We’ve been able to maintain our normal hours through the entirety of what’s been going on.”
Happy Joe’s Pizza and Ice Cream Parlor plans to continue providing delivery and carryout only at this time and will reevaluate down the road as things continue to evolve.
