Golden Corral restaurant in Henrietta NY readies to reopen. Here’s what will be different

© Marcia Greenwood/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle The sign outside Golden Corral in Henrietta reads: Get excited. We are reopening soon. The plan is to open by June 17, the owner says.

After being closed for more than a year, Golden Corral Buffet & Grill’s only Rochester and western New York location at 450 Jefferson Road in Henrietta is preparing to reopen late next week.

“There are lot of things that are going on with the reopening,” said owner Dr. Nilesh H. Patel, who owns the restaurant, part of a Raleigh, North Carolina-based chain.

Among those things: continued work on “a thorough cleaning of every inch of the building” and restoring and replacing kitchen equipment, which has been sitting idle since the coronavirus pandemic arrived here in March 2020. “This is similar to opening a brand new store,” he said.

Even once the physical space is squared away, initially, the business will operate differently because Golden Corral’s self-service buffet format still is prohibited under New York state COVID-19 restrictions. (For that reason, Wegmans Food Markets has suspended its food-bar service indefinitely.)

Instead, the Golden Corral in Henrietta — which first opened eight years ago this month — will serve food cafeteria-style, with guests indicating what they want from the buffet and restaurant workers fulfilling orders, said Patel, who owns a number of other local businesses including a pharmacy and hotels.

He also hopes to launch curbside and delivery services, demand for which has soared because of the pandemic, but those plans have not been formalized yet.

Another change: no breakfast on weekends, at least at the beginning.

Traditionally, weekend breakfast service has been a slow time for the location, Patel said.

Expected hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, but those, too, are subject to change.

“Once we open, we’ll see what kind of demand there is,” he said. “Plus, we will have to look at our number of employees as well.”

Like many restaurants, the Henrietta Golden Corral is looking to hire, “But a good number of previous employees are returning to us. So, we definitely have a core employee group that we will start off with,” Patel said.

In mid-May, in the wake of new guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state lifted its capacity limit for bars and restaurants, provided that unvaccinated patrons are able to maintain 6 feet of physical distance. New York also ended its face-mask mandate for vaccinated people in most settings and has left it to businesses whether to ask customers for proof of vaccination. Many, like Wegmans, are operating on the honor system.

Patel expects that his Golden Corral location will follow that model. At the start, though, workers will wear masks.

Starting June 15, Patel said the restaurant will host a soft opening for friends and workers’ family members, “so we can kind of understand how the logistics will work.”

He expects to open to the general public a couple days after that.

But everything is “a moving target,” Patel said, including state mandates, and noted Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement Monday that he will lift most remaining COVID-19 restrictions when 70% of the state’s adult population has gotten at least one vaccine dose. On Wednesday, the governor reported that 69.1% have.

Overall, “We will have to assess things as we go,” Patel said, “because in the end, the health of our employees as well as our customers is our biggest priority, and it is precisely the reason why we are taking our time to reopen because we want to make sure we do it right.”

Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwood@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Golden Corral restaurant in Henrietta NY readies to reopen. Here’s what will be different