BOZEMAN — On Wednesday Montanans heard from Governor Bullock about his plans to reopen the Treasure State. Now, it’s up to individual business owners on what they plan to do.
Aaron Parker owns several restaurants in Bozeman, but before he makes a hasty decision to open them back up, he first wants to hear from others.
“We’d like to speak to other restaurant owners, locally and kind of get a feel for how they’re staffed and really as a restaurant community how we feel to open that soon,” he explained.
Parker watched as Governor Bullock held a live press conference announcing that restaurants may open up as of May 4 during phase one. But that may be a little too soon for the business owner.
“We’re right now thinking moreso towards the middle of May based on the way things are looking in Gallatin County right now,” Parker said.
Parker believes, even with the guidelines in place, there are still some things he’s apprehensive about.
“Even with that social distancing of that first phase, we’re still concerned about, you know, how close a server would have to get to a customer to properly take their order, being on a waitlist in a restaurant,” he explained.
But the restrictions have made Parker think.
“If those restrictions are the restrictions that are going to be in place for us to open, it would seem like it’s still too risky to open, being those restrictions need to be in place,” he said.
Jam! is open for carryout and delivery, but may not be opening its doors as soon as announced.
But, Parker is still impressed with how everything has gone.
“I think our Governor has done an amazing job with how proactive he was with putting the restrictions in place,” Parker said.
Just to reiterate, again, there are several phases of the reopening process, and we will soon see the outcomes from phase one.
