Daroos will be remaining in Crookston, according to Amanda Grover, who owns the restaurant. Grover said a purchase agreement should be signed today (Monday) with the new owners, who could take over the restaurant by the first of the year. “We plan to sign the purchase agreement this afternoon,” said Grover. “And hopefully we can have them take over the first of the year. But, depending on their side of what they have to do to make this happen, how long the bank takes and things like that, we’re unsure of the exact date. And until they get things a little more secure, they aren’t ready to announce their names yet.”
According to Grover, the new owners will maintain the Daroos name and recipes, at least initially, while continuing to offer the lunch buffet. “As far as I’m aware, they are planning on keeping everything the same for now until they get in here and can decide what they want to do from there,” said Grover. “That includes the buffet at lunchtime, the Daroos menu, the Daroos recipes. I know some of the Daroos recipes changed for a little while from what I hear, but it will be mandatory that the pizzas will have the same ingredients as our other locations.”
Grover also said she was caught off guard by the sudden departure of Julie and Larry Love as managers and by the statements they reached out to the press to make. She adds that while she can’t promise perfection, quality customer service, and doing what is best for the customers is essential. “I just wanted to follow up and set the record straight,” said Grover. “I was caught off guard as the owner of Daroos in the way the managers and many other employees left suddenly with no notice. After their radio announcement and Facebook posts, a lot of people thought that we were closing or no longer having the buffet. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of business because of it. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen for a while, either with me not living here and not having many employees to work with. It was tough, but we pushed through it and now are very excited to announce that we have buyers. They will be keeping it a Daroos and will continue to have the buffet at lunchtime. I will be training and working with them on building the staff back up and making Daroos successful. We really do care about our customer service. We will do our very best to train everyone to do a great job. The restaurant business is unpredictable, and we can’t always promise perfection, but we will do our very best for all of our customers. We want to say thanks for supporting us this last year and hope you will continue to support the new owners. We’ve enjoyed being here in Crookston.”
