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Outpost will open after weeks of delays

Convenience store inside new Outpost building. Workers set up in preparation for this week's opening of the convenience store and the official opening event for the restaurant on Feb. 27.

The $5.5 million renovated Outpost restaurant is opening Feb. 27, giving starving students and faculty hope that they may be able to eat in without making an excursion to upper campus.

The larger and more lit version of the Outpost is opening after a nearly four-week delay of its original Jan.19 debut.

Construction was delayed because of previous mishaps, including “non-responsive” general contractors who did not stay on schedule, as reported by the Daily Forty-Niner on Jan. 27.

Don Penrod, general manager and CEO of 49er Shops Inc., said there have been a lot of issues and delays with the construction of the Outpost, and in reference to the contractor issues, he said, “We would rather have worked with someone else.”

The construction of the new restaurant marks a major addition on lower campus. “The new Outpost is a state of the art facility built to serve the lower campus area,” Penrod said. “The old Outpost was a small snack bar that didn’t have interior seating or air conditioning and could no longer meet the demand of a growing campus population.”

The new Outpost will have 150 indoor seats and 100 outdoor seats.

The Outpost will offer the services of a convenience store in addition to the restaurant’s grill. Both the convenience store and restaurant are under the same roof but separated by a partition and are run by separate staff.

The convenience store will be open sometime this week before the restaurant portion because, “they don’t have to train a new kitchen staff,” Penrod said.

Bryan Sewell, a junior undeclared major, was affected by the Outpost’s lengthy construction.

“Losing the Outpost meant that my classmates in the engineering buildings had to go to the USU to get lunch or dinner, where all of the other students on campus go. Longer lines, fast food restaurants and not being able to find a seat were major problems,” he said.

The official ribbon cutting for the Outpost is set for Feb. 27 at 2 p.m.

Penrod said the event is “invitation only” and “will be a little more low key” than other events. The ribbon cutting was scheduled on a Friday to avoid heavy campus traffic because the restaurant staff will still be acclimating to the new environment.

“We need practice time,” Penrod said.

Tiffany Rider contributed to this article.

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