Serving The City: Mom, Grandma Inspire Career in Cooking

ST. CLOUD -- For cooks and kitchen managers ordering food for their restaurants and bars has been a challenge over the past several months due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Russ Petersen has been the kitchen manager at Shooters Saloon and Eatery in St. Cloud for nearly 11 years.

Petersen says he discovered his love for cooking at a young age helping his mom and grandmother in the kitchen. He decided he could make a career out of it during a school job fair when he was in junior high, and he got his first job in the industry working part-time at a bakery when he was 15-years-old.

He says from 50 percent capacity to no dine-in option at all it's been tough.

Predicting what you're going to have, understanding what 50 percent capacity is, or being outdoors what you're going to be doing for sales, it's a little stressful.  But, when we do open back up, even though that stress is there, it's nice to get back to some normalcy.

He says they've been blessed by the support they've been getting from the community.

I hear a lot of, "I just had to have a Shooters burger.  I just had to come in."  Getting that kind of support and hearing that kind of thing.  The main trend is people just missing being here.

A spokesman for the governor says he will loosen restrictions on in-door dining during an announcement Wednesday. Petersen says he's anxious to get the official word so he can start ordering food and preparing to re-open their doors.

I hope that sales ramp up, I hope that we'll be able to get to 50 percent capacity -- if not more -- and then it's a little bit of a tricky process to kind of predict the future.

Petersen says what he loves most about working in the bar and restaurant industry is being around people and meeting new people, so he's looking forward to being able to talk to customers again.

The WJON series "Serving the City" features people who are working full-time in the bar and restaurant industry.