After more than a year, Poor Richard’s Restaurant reopens

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- On Monday, Poor Richard's Restaurant in Colorado Springs finally reopened after a year and half.

"Really good. It’s just so great, we had so many regular customers come back and thank us and it just feels good," said Richard Skorman, the owner of Poor Richard's.

The restaurant was impacted by the pandemic, but also took time to remodel the inside to make it more COVID friendly and safe for customers.

"We wanted to remodel to make it more efficient, but to make it more COVID friendly. We had lots of things crowded in, lots of self-serve, and we wanted to make it all behind the counter," said Skorman.

Tables are now more spread out, all dishes and silverware are compostable, and customers are being asked to wear masks while standing in line.

"We are going to be diligent about keeping everything clean, and our employees will be more separated now because we won’t have them picking up dishes and doing all the things we used to do before," said Skorman.

Like every restaurant, they are struggling to hire employees. Between the restaurant, bookstore, cafe, and toy store Skorman also owns, they usually have around 50 employees, but it's now half of that.

"We brought back several key ones. We couldn’t get everyone to come back, like every other restaurant we are struggling to find good people," said Skorman.

Poor Richard's Restaurant has been open since 1977 and this is the longest amount of time it's been shut down. Skorman says the closure was a tough time.

"It was hard for me personally because my wife, Patricia, and I own this and we just love our customers, we love the sense of community, it was a tough year and a half to not be down here," said Skorman.

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. They are currently hiring.