CJ?HADDAD The renovated interior at the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s on Pine Island Road in Cape Coral.

While the last few months have been a challenge to say the least for businesses across the country, one local restaurateur saw an opportunity to improve along the way.

Warren Frye, owner of Beef ‘O’ Brady’s on Del Prado Boulevard and Pine Island Road, as well as KJ’s steakhouse just over the Midpoint Bridge in Fort Myers, has been doing some renovating at his locations so that customers will come back to an even more welcoming and enjoyable atmosphere.

“When we started shutting down and realizing what was going on, my thought process was that I wanted to utilize some of the time to give my employees extra hours,” Frye said. “This gave me the opportunity to have some employees still employed that would have been laid off and give them some extra hours in pay because we didn’t have enough business.

“Of course my biggest thought and concern was that when we did open back up we needed to do everything we could to get the operation back up to more than 100 percent — like it was brand new.”

Frye, along with the help of his staff and not an outside hire, has been giving each location a “fresh coat of paint,” if you will, rejuvenating the interior and exteriors of his establishments, wanting to achieve a unique feel.

He and his staff have worked diligently on the facelift of each location as well as churning out takeout orders.

Frye said that being able to work on renovations during “business hours” — not in the early hours of the morning or late at night, was really the driving force behind making updates now, though they were in sight before this pandemic.

“This time gave us an opportunity to give a ‘fresh new look’ to help ensure that we were making improvement and changes to our restaurants not only to follow new guidelines that have been established by the health department,” Frye said. “We did some things that really made the place look better. We wanted to protect a ‘newer, cleaner, better’ image because I want to make sure that when people came in after the closure, that they saw we were focused on making improvements.”

New things you’ll see at KJ’s Steakhouse, besides the spotless surfaces, nooks and crannies, include a fresh wall finish and treatment, revamping of tables, virtual menus (to avoid spreading germs) and new hands-free paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms, which Frye also installed at all of his locations.

The staff at KJ’s is also being proactive with sanitary practices.

At “Beefs,” patrons will see more changes when it comes to the dcor, brand new 75-inch televisions and unique, one-of-a-kind art on freshly textured walls. You’ll also find new patio furniture, tables and some innovative “keg-themed” wall art.

Additional pieces of art will be making appearances on Beef ‘O’ Brady walls in the coming months as well, with a little help from Frye’s daughter.

“We didn’t traditionally want to do a bunch of bar signs and regular old bar stuff that you see that sometimes sports restaurants put out, we’re trying to make it really unique and different,” he said.

For example, Frye is going to have images of athletes on his walls with famous quotes of theirs underneath. In the works is a unique photo design of NHL legend Wayne Gretzky with his most famous uttering, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

“Stuff like that is what we’re trying to do — a more modern look,” Frye said.

Though the pandemic has been difficult for all to deal with, working or not, Frye said he was happy to be able to improve his business with his employees.

“The nice thing about this is that a friend of mine, myself and my staff did all of this work,” he said. “It’s like a family affair to help improve the restaurant. It’s nice to have our employees help instead of paying someone you don’t really know. It’s like we’re a big family.”

While some of his employees did have to be laid off due to restaurants having to close, Frye kept them updated on renovations and told them to come check them out in their free time if they were possible.

Now, nearly every employee that was working for Frye before the pandemic is now back to work. Some have had to relocate or are still finding it difficult to find childcare.

“I wanted them to know that we were working to get the restaurant back in shape so that they have jobs,” Frye said.

And as for business since all three locations were able to start indoor seating again May 4?

“We’re getting better every single week and we’re getting busier every single week,” Frye said. “And that’s a positive sign.”

He is still waiting for any benefits he applied for, whether that be the Payment Protection Program or small business grants from the state.

All changes thus far have been out-of-pocket and he is grateful that they have been established in the community for over a decade and have funding to fall back on.

Frye looks forward to the state continuing to open up and getting back to serving the region.

“It really is great for the public’s psyche to get out and enjoy some of those things they’ve been used to all their lives and get back to some normalcy,”” he said. “And I talk to others that are still a little bit nervous about coming out and that’s fine, everybody has their own reasons. But it was critical for me to get my employees back to work.”

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s locations in the Cape are at 2481 Del Prado Blvd. and 3015 Pine Island Road.

KJ’s Steakhouse is at 10950 S. Cleveland Ave., in Fort Myers.

Visit www.kjsfreshgrill.com or www.beefobradys.com for more information.

– Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @haddad_cj