You can stop running around like a hungry rooster with its head cut off. One of downtown’s most popular restaurants is merely renovating and has a goal of reopening in January.
Running Rooster restaurant began a major renovation Dec. 8 with plans to expand the space, add various amenities such as a family area, and focus the menu on wood-fired offerings.
When the business started in 2004, it was a strictly a take-home operation with cold, packaged meals. The same operation moved into the current location at 800 San Benito St. two years later and continued with a similar “grab and go” model before eventually evolving into a restaurant.
“It was never originally built as a restaurant,” said co-owner Jim Chapman. “We never had the proper restaurant infrastructure.”
The owners had been waiting for an opportunity to expand and install that proper infrastructure, and finally got it when a neighboring space in the building opened up.
“Fortunately, we were successful,” Chapman said. “We made it through the recession. … We’ve been wanting for a long time to put in the proper infrastructure as well as just upgrade the overall customer experience of the space.”
The renovated restaurant will include a “whole big kitchen area” with some of it exposed with a cook line where customers can watch food being cooked and prepared. He said Running Rooster will retain the burgers and core menu, but will be adding other items and using a wood-fired theme. Some of the new items will include wood-fired pizza and rotisserie chicken.
Chapman recalled that many customers believed the restaurant’s trademark outdoor grilling technique was a purposeful marketing tool of some sort, but it actually resulted out of necessity because they didn’t have the appropriate indoor infrastructure.
They searched for a replacement, indoor cooking device to replicate the flavor of the grill, but he said there was nothing like it. So the restaurant is going with a charcoal burning oven, and the menu will carry that wood-fired feel.
Along with the kitchen changes, the Running Rooster will have more seating, a dedicated family area, a bar with a variety of beer choices, TV screens and expanded bathrooms.
They are pushing to be reopened in mid- to late January, Chapman said.
“We’re trying to minimize that time as much as possible,” he said.
As they continue preparing to reopen, Chapman mentioned that the furniture they used previously had been second-hand dining room sets. He said customers “kind of had their favorites” and that one table was so popular, they put it up on eBay this week – with the highest bidder choosing one of three charitable recipients, the Community Food Bank of San Benito County, the homeless shelter or Chamberlain’s Children Center.
As of 2 p.m. Friday, there were 14 bids. The highest bid was $510.
