Jesse Batson

After an extensive, eleven-day remodeling period this past January, the Perkins Family Restaurant offers a variety of new services for its customers.

Business has improved due to the renovations, said Josh Sisson, guest service manager.

“We’re really showing a great improvement over last year’s numbers, which is really fun and exciting to see,” Sisson said.

Equally exciting for Sisson is seeing the finished product come to life.

“We totally gutted the kitchen and the dining room and redid everything,” Sisson said. “We put in brand new carpet, brand new booths, we vaulted the ceiling in the lobby and put in all new light fixtures up front and throughout the whole restaurant.”

To eliminate long waiting lines, the lobby was enlarged. In addition to that, there is an entirely new sound system.

“We put in a microphone system because lobby gets pretty full on Sunday morning,” Sisson said.

There was also a 25-foot addition to the restaurant.

“We extended 25 feet off the back of the building and the whole width of the building,” Sisson said.

The extra room was used to build a more spacious kitchen and to create the new party room, equipped with a satellite TV, DVD and VHS capabilities and high speed Internet.

A number of SDSU basketball and football recruiting breakfasts have been held in the party room due to the construction of the University Student Union.

Luke Meadows, asst. offensive line football coach and recruiting coordinator, booked recruiting breakfasts with Perkins, both before and after the renovation.

“The first time we had it there was before we had the addition,” Meadows said. “Then, after they did the new addition over Christmas and late January, … we had a couple more breakfasts over there and the new addition was great because we had more room.”

The amenities of the technology in the party room may come in handy as well.

“We’ve even looked at maybe showing our highlight tape up there,” Meadows said.

With the union under construction and the Performing Arts Center and Lincoln Music Hall booked, the Perkins party room was convenient. However, future recruiting breakfasts will be held on campus once construction is finished.

“We enjoyed going over there, but, obviously, our first responsibility is with the campus,” Meadows said.

Retired community member and Perkins regular, Don Harvey, feels the ambience is more pleasant due to added lighting, but even with all of the renovations, his favorite aspect of the restaurant hasn’t changed.

“There’s good service and good food,” Harvey said.