The owner of JG’s Tarentum Station Grille said Thursday he intends to reopen the popular restaurant on Dec. 1.

The restaurant in a historic former train station in the heart of Tarentum has been closed since March because of the covid-19 pandemic.

When the state allowed restaurants to increase their indoor dining capacity to 50% in September, Greco said it wasn’t economically feasible for him to operate with that limitation.

Using the main dining room, bar and upstairs area, Greco now says he feels the restaurant can make that work.

“We’ve been struggling with the decision,” he said. “We just felt we needed this much time to get the restaurant and staff ready to be open for the holiday season. That was our goal.

“I really wanted to try to do it Nov. 1,” he said. “As a team, we wouldn’t be ready.”

The restaurant’s reopening is “fantastic news,” Councilwoman Carrie Fox said.

“The borough misses having that great asset of a beautiful restaurant in the center of Tarentum,” she said. “Many missed the Station. I have had so many ask when they would return.”

Greco said he will follow whatever pandemic-related rules are in place come December.

“We hope to have the restaurant decorated for the holiday season,” he said. “We plan to be opening as normal as possible.”

Greco said the entire staff is returning.

While keeping the most popular dishes, Greco said the lunch and dinner menus have been reduced to allow the restaurant to carry less inventory.

“Obviously I lost a lot of money when we had a lot of inventory and had to close,” he said. “I’m trying my best in the future to run with a smaller inventory.”

While some was thrown away, Greco said he donated some produce and other food to area food banks and to the Knead Community Cafe in New Kensington.

Knead Community Cafe co-owner Mary Bode said the cafe received donations of various perishables, produce and food supplies from a number of area restaurants that were forced to close during the early stages of the pandemic. Some of it has been used in the cafe and in the free “grab-n-go” meals that the cafe has given out weekly since mid-March.

“Everything that we get we consider a blessing,” Bode said. “One of our core values here is to not waste food. Food is to be put on tables and in stomachs, and not in the trash.”

JG’s Tarentum Station Grille’s hours will be the same — 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and 5 to 11 p.m. on Saturdays. The restaurant is closed on Sundays.

“We’re very excited to reopen for our customers and we look forward to Dec. 1,” Greco said. “Our team is going to do everything humanly possible to make our customers’ visit an enjoyable experience, but more importantly, a very safe visit. We’re taking every measure to make sure the restaurant is very safe.”

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