Wichita restaurant, closed since employee tested positive for COVID-19, will reopen soon
A Wichita restaurant will likely reopen later this week after voluntarily closing when an employee tested positive for COVID-19, the restaurant’s area manager said.
Jose Pepper’s Mexican Restaurant at 2243 N. Tyler Road closed on Thursday afternoon after managers were informed that a back-of-the-house employee had tested positive, said Matt Hench, area manager for the Overland Park-based restaurant chain.
The Sedgwick County Health Department asked the restaurant to supply it with a list of names of all other employees who had been within 6 feet of the employee for more than 10 minutes.
All of those employees were tested, Hench said, and all of their tests came back negative. The infected employee is doing well and showing no symptoms, he said.
The restaurant voluntarily closed and brought in a crew for deep cleaning, he said.
“We could have opened back that night but chose to close the store to disinfect and kind of regroup,” he said.
No customers were exposed to the employee, Hench said.
Jose Pepper’s performs temperature checks on all of its employees before they start work each day, Hench said. The restaurant put a sign on the door informing customers about the reason for the closure.
“That comes from our owner,” Hench said. “He wants to be 100 percent transparent. That’s the way he runs the business.”
Wichita has two Jose Pepper’s restaurants. The other is at 11423 E. 13th St.
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 12:48 PM.
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