After more than six weeks of being closed for renovations, Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches on West University Avenue will be reopening today.
Bob Weygandt, general manager of the West University Avenue location, said every 10 years, each restaurant, including the one at 1724 W. University Ave., is required by its contract to go through renovations.
He said after the renovations, his restaurant will look similar to the Jimmy John’s restaurant at 2220 SW Archer Road, which was remodeled during Summer.
The West University Avenue restaurant is smaller and will only have two serving lines, compared with the three lines at the Southwest Archer Road location, Weygandt said. He added that his restaurant also traded its old cash registers for touch-screen computers.
Before, restaurant employees had to write down customer orders on tickets, Weygandt said. Now, customer information will be saved on the computers for faster orders.
“It’s easier to serve the customer; it’s more efficient for the customer,” he said.
Dan Jaworski, general manager for the Southwest Archer Road restaurant, said when his restaurant started renovations in July, he sent employees to work at the West University Avenue restaurant. At one point, Weygandt’s store had about 60 people working at the same time, Jaworski said.
When the West University Avenue restaurant closed, Weygandt said UF students and professors had to get their sandwiches from the Southwest Archer Road location.
While the temporary closing gave the Southwest Archer Road location more business, the closing had some hungry students looking for the sandwiches in Midtown worried.
Walking along West University Avenue Friday, Rachel Wick, a 20-year-old UF psychology sophomore, said she was happy the restaurant wasn’t permanently leaving.
“I saw that it was just being remodeled,” she said. “I was kind of happy about that.”
