⏲︎ This article is more than a year old.

The Jigger Shop is nearly ready for business and, while the popular Mount Gretna eatery might look the same to customers this year, its owner says changes behind the scenes will lead to new menu options in the future.

“We’re remodeling the kitchen,” owner Kyle Seyfert told LebTown. “We’re updating, it’s all behind-the-scenes stuff. Nothing that will really be noticeable to customers.”

But, with the upgrade, he says, “we might soon be able to add some new stuff to the menu.” While no specific plans for menu changes have been made, he says, “this will give us the opportunity to expand” their offerings.

The Jigger Shop, which has been a Mount Gretna tradition since 1895, will open Saturday and Sunday, May 21-22, then reopen for the season beginning Saturday, May 28. The restaurant and ice cream parlor will be open six days a week, excluding Mondays, from noon to 9 p.m.

Read More: A classic trip to Mount Gretna’s Jigger Shop

The impact of COVID-19 is, Seyfert hopes, behind him.

The global pandemic, which over the past two years has caused more than 1 million deaths in the United States and more than 6 million deaths worldwide, shuttered countless businesses and was particularly hard on the food service industry. Many restaurants were forced to limit seating, sell only takeout food or close entirely during the worst of the pandemic.

Seyfert and his family purchased the Jigger Shop from longtime owner Chuck Allwein in May 2018, less than two years before COVID-19 began to spread.

“We definitely felt it,” Seyfert said. “It reduced our numbers a bit, but we’re glad to see everything is coming around again, and recovering. We’re hoping everything gets back to normal.”

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Tom has been a professional journalist for nearly four decades. In his spare time, he plays fiddle with the Irish band Fire in the Glen, and he reviews music, books and movies for Rambles.NET. He lives with his wife, Michelle, and has four children: Vinnie, Molly, Annabelle and Wolf.