Prime Quarter will reopen Oct. 14, not Sept. 14

PRINCETON — The sign out front Prime Quarter Steak House in Princeton said it would reopen on Sept. 14, but owner Al Sanger confirmed last week that the re-opening date has been pushed back one month to Oct. 14.

There was a delay in new refrigeration equipment that was ordered, plus Sanger said the business has had to re-hire and train new staff as he lost a few employees over these last six months while the restaurant remained closed during the pandemic.

Prime Quarter was among the businesses that closed down mid-March at the start of the pandemic. It has remained closed since then due to the complexity of the government mandates, according to Sanger.

While there has been some worry in the community that the business would not reopen, Sanger said that is not true. He always had intentions of reopening the doors.

“Princeton is a great place to do business,” he said.

Why has Prime Quarter remained closed?

The issue really comes down to the business model of a grill-your-own steak house, which is known to attract a niche of diners from around the state, and its ability to remain sustainable amid a pandemic.

“How do you open? How do you open and not generate anywhere near the amount of volume that you need to operate on? You can’t do it,” Sanger said.

Considering the limitations put on restaurants that they can only seat 25% capacity or 50 people or less, Sanger said even on a good weekend night, the volume of customers he would have been able to seat throughout these last six months would not have generated enough money to make his business sustainable.

“The numbers don’t work … It’s impossible to make it worth it,” he said.

The cost to run the air conditioning, the amount of charcoal is takes to keep the grills going, the price of U.S.D.A. Choice steak, employee wages, sales tax and holding tax all begin to add up quick.

Sanger said when his restaurant in Princeton was forced to close down on March 15, the business lost a lot of money from the amount of meat and other ingredients it had to give away.

“You can’t turn the spigot on and then all of a sudden there’s a spike, turn it off. You just don’t turn the spigot on and turn it off. It’s not like pumping gas,” he said, referring to regulations closing down businesses.

Sanger has held out to watch what would happen with the COVID cases and what sort of regulations the government would put out on businesses in attempt to reduce the spread.

It’s been his goal from the beginning to reopen when it felt safe enough to do so for the community, customers, employees and when he knew his business could remain sustainable.

During these last six months while the business sat closed, the property remained busy as Sanger used the time to complete needed updates to the building and parking lot. Among many projects, the parking lot was redone, new awnings were purchased and hung, and roof work was complete.