Customers won’t physically see the smiles on the faces of Eat’n Park employees when the Pittsburgh-based restaurant chain eventually opens its doors for dine-in eating.

Masks will cover them.

“But they will be smiling,” said Jeffrey Broadhurst, president and CEO Eat’n Park Hospitality Group on a Zoom call with Pittsburgh Technology Council’s “Business as Usual Today” on Tuesday. “We are, and always will be, about creating smiles. We even have Smiley face masks. We have talked about selling them.”

That conversation is one of many Broadhurst and his leadership team discuss during daily morning calls. With the ever-changing response to owning a business during the pandemic, and Allegheny County about to transition to the state’s yellow phase of reopening, Broadhurst and his team have had been readjusting and reworking how things might look.

Currently, 44 of the 60 Eat’n Park restaurants are open for takeout along with eight of the 10 Hello Bistros. The two Porch locations are closed, although Broadhurst said he hopes to reopen the Oakland location for takeout in the next few weeks.

He said the first steps to getting people back into restaurants will be about safety and protecting employees and guests.

“We want guests to want to come in and not be afraid to get sick,” he said.

They will adhere to social distancing, hand washing, cleaning of all surfaces and will use ultraviolet lights for sanitizing. Employees will wear blue gloves and masks. Plastic shields will be placed between booths and at the cash register.

Broadhurst said he plans to utilize outdoor seating and, in some cases, extend dining onto sidewalks with permission from the particular town by the end of May.

All self-serve options will go away to start, from salad bars to other buffets. He said the salad bar was 25% of the business. The chain might consider having servers at salad bars.

A food truck is not viable at the moment, he said.

Broadhurst plans to find ways to maintain a wait list without having guests gathering around the hostess stand or too close in the lobby as part of the new normal.

He wants to return to 50% occupancy with limited paper menus. Most of the restaurants have takeout windows. One is being added to the northbound McKnight Road location. The southbound McKnight Road location has one.

Returning to old-school parking lot dining service probably isn’t going to happen, although they did something similar during Fridays in Lent.

“We are about surviving and feeding people. but also taking care of our employees,” he said. “What good is surviving if you can’t take care of your people?”

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