SALT LAKE CITY — The operators of Bewilder Brewing Company say its been a struggle to survive during the shutdown, and now they’re looking forward to opening on Friday after Governor Gary Herbert lowered the COVID-19 risk level from red to orange.
"It’s been wild, it’s a few weeks but it feels like an eternity,” said co-owner Cody McKendrick.
Friday, the doors to the brewery will be open, and they’re hoping people come out to visit.
"We’ll have good music, we’ll have TVs going, good atmosphere, good food, good beer, I mean it’ll be a good time," McKendrick said. "Especially compared to most people sitting at home on the couch, it should be a welcome change I hope."
However, things aren’t exactly going back to normal.
"Everybody’s a little apprehensive about it, I think you’d be silly not to after what we’ve all gone through and what we’ve seen other people going through,” he said.
Governor Herbert released a long list of state guidelines for businesses to follow to ensure we don’t see another spike in cases.
"I think there’s gonna be a lot of people that still stay home and that’s great, that’s fine," McKendrick said. "But for those who are itching to get out and wanna have a safe place to go we’re gonna do everything in our power to be that place for them."
Some of the new rules include wearing masks, keeping groups to 20 or under, continuing to stay six feet apart, sanitizing properly and wearing gloves.
McKendrick says he’s prepared for all of that.
“We have a lot of space for people to be able to spread out and feel comfortable and then we’ve invested in a lot of sanitation, we’re gonna have sanitizer set up everywhere, proper gloves and masks and we’ll make sure all of our personnel and staff is very well-versed in all the regulations and are operating with the procedures that we have to adhere to."
Mckendrick said if you’d like to check out the brewery, they open at noon on Friday.
Walk-ins are welcome or you can call ahead to make a table reservation, and customers are highly encouraged to wear masks.