Mauro's on Riverside is one restaurant that is in limbo despite the green light from the province to reopen May 14 (Tiffany Goodwein/CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Local restaurant stuck in limbo despite green light to reopen

May 19, 2020 | 6:19 PM

MEDICINE HAT- Jodi and Mark Albrecht remember the day clearly, the day when they met each other for the first time at a little place called Mauro’s On Riverside.

“I was here with some girlfriends and Mark came in and it was actually a bit on a dare that I would give him my number and so I gave him my number. Four days later he called me we went on a horrible first date and then we didn’t see each other for a year, and then almost a year to the day he came in to my place of work asked me out on a date and we came here on the best date ever,” Jodi Albrecht said.

Little did they know, the two would get married and years later, they would own the very place where they first met.

Fast forward to today, and the couple is now trying to hold on to the restaurant that has a very special place in their heart. Since the mandatory shutdown due to COVID-19, the couple has been hit with roadblock after roadblock in their efforts to reopen.

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“ You want to know how it has affected us? In every bloody way possible. That’s how it has affected us, but it has also affected every other person that is standing in my shoes right now..” Jodi Albrecht said.

For the Albrecht’s picking up the pieces after the closure has been the hardest part.

“What we are dealing with now is the equipment breaking down while we were closed and to reopen now we are dealing with freezers that have not had doors open and they freeze up and break, and that’s expensive,” Albrecht said.

“We had to throw out everything that was in that freezer. That’s a cost that nobody actually wants to get real with,” she said.

A cost well over $3000 that the couple has to pay out of their own pockets.

The Albrecht’s say it is the little things, like expired food that needs to be tossed, or lines that need to be changed that end up costing them lots of money.

“Watching stuff that you bought get tossed out through no fault of your own is a frustrating feeling, and I think a lot of restaurant owners are feeling really helpless,” she said.

Chairs at the restaurant will need to be reupholstered to make it easier to clean, as part of the recommendations at a cost of roughly $80 a chair.

“We are just trying to do the best we can,” said Albrecht.

New social distancing rules also means unplanned but necessary renovations at the restaurant. So far, the couple has had to tear out a booth so that tables can be properly spaced out.

The renovations are adding to their already delayed reopening, but the couple says they want to make sure they do everything right before they open their doors.

Since the shutdown, the couple received a Government Canada Emergency Business Loan, but like many restaurant owners they worry it will only drive them further in debt.

“I’m guessing just from this five -six week shut down that we are getting through right now it will probably take two to three years to recover,” Mark Albrecht said.

With the insurmountable stress , they credit a few things with getting themselves through each day.

“A sense of humor. Beer for him, a sense of humor for me and lots of coffee,” joked Jodi Albrecht.

This, as the couple works to reopen the place that started it all for them many years ago.

“It’s very sentimental,” said Mark Albrecht.