Serving The City: Bar Manager Grateful for Support

SAUK RAPIDS -- As restaurants and bars remain closed for in-door dining they appreciate the support they are getting from the community.

Dillon Bienusa is the bar manager at Jimmy's Pour House in Sauk Rapids. He says they're grateful for their customers.

Some people have given us Christmas presents still, it's just cool that you made an impact on some people's lives.  One week there was a couple of us working Saturday morning and someone brought in cookies, it was so sweet.

Despite the hard times, the industry has faced for most of this year, the people working at bars and restaurants have remained remarkably positive. Bienusa says it's just who they are.

There's really not much that we can do about it.  You can fight it, you can argue it, you might as well just go with it.

Even though you can't go inside and sit down at Jimmy's Pour House right now, the staff is still trying to keep the holiday spirit with Christmas music playing in the background.

I'm wearing my Santa hat right now, I found it yesterday and thought it would be perfect for this week.  It's not the same versus other years when on Christmas Eve I'm slinging drinks from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. before people go do their family Christmas.

With his bar closed, for now, Bienusa says he's been spending a lot of time doing some deep cleaning in the restaurant.

Bienusa started working at Jimmy's as a dishwasher when he was in high school. He left to go to school for a few years but is back now managing the bar.

He says he was pretty shy as a kid so working in the restaurant industry was a good way to meet people.

If you know someone working full time in the restaurant industry that you think we should feature in our "Serving the City" series, let us know.