Let’s Get Started
By Jason Madison, CRI Weekly News
Oskaloosa, IA- Oskaloosa residents need to eat and they can do that at any one of the many restaurants and fast food eateries in town. And soon, residents will be able to satisfy their taste buds at two new locations. To start off, CRI’s Jason Madison tells us how things are progressing with Iowa’s Best Bite Challenge winner “On The Green” south of town.
Nothing endures but change. That’s why here at Osky Golf, construction will soon begin to renovate the space that was formerly called Dr. Salami’s into a new place for new restaurant, called “On the Green”.
It’s been three months since Pam Oldes , Shayna Bruce, Zane and Suzanne Muntz tickled and teased the taste buds of Oskaloosa judges during Iowa’s Best Bite Restaurant Challenge. It is a contest set around winning the prize opportunity of revamping a structure that isn’t necessarily up to par said On The Green Co-owner, Zane Muntz.
“We want to make sure that we’re successful moving forward. So we’ve taken a step back and looked at the restaurant as a whole in terms of how we are operationally going to run and function.”, said Muntz.
The slow approach to “On The Green” isn’t what the owners anticipated, however it’s just what the doctor ordered for a quick recovery at the old Salami’s location.
“The biggest thing we are probably looking to do is doing an addition to the kitchen. So add a significant amount of square footage that allows us to prep and do things properly. Then it allows us to stage for class reunions, Christmas parties, and those types of events. So that is probably one of the easiest or biggest examples of where we stepped back and taken a long range approach. Not just a short term get open as soon as we can thing.”, said Muntz.
As of this week building permits were approved by the city and Muntz met with several contractors to get this place cooking.
“Once we get construction started we’ll be better to define that. I will say that our targeted date at this point is October first to start to get our occupancy permit. Which means we can start to do some things around there. I know we have some events that we already have tentatively scheduled for October that we’re excited about to trying to get in. Those are the first things we do before the
Before the business can start serving different cuisine and comfort foods from the midwest they have to start hiring. Something the owners are enthused about since one of the partners is a certified trainer in this area of the industry said Muntz.
“I think that is very exciting for us because we are really looking forward to train and develop staff. We want to bring staff up and into our organization. We love the resources available with the colleges being here as well as the high school. So we look at having a blended staff. We want to create a fun atmosphere, but we want it to be focused on service.”, said Muntz.
Muntz said he expects to hire more than 20 individuals for cooking and service positions. He’s already received some resumes, and encourages anyone else who would like to apply to go to their website, that’s www.eatonthegreen.com.
