West end Jiffy Grill reopens for business

It’s been less than a week since a driver accidentally drove into the front of the Jiffy Grill, but Mohamed Hussain and his staff are happy to announce they are open for business as usual.

The west end Jiffy Grill location suffered damages to the front of the building due to the incident, but luckily no one was hurt, and no severe structural damage occurred, Hussain said. The cleanup work has already begun at the location in the Centennial Square plaza located at the corner of Princess Street and Centennial Drive, and Hussain said the work is expected to be complete within a couple of weeks.

It wasn’t just the crash to the front of the restaurant that made last week a challenging one for Hussain and the staff at Jiffy Grill in the west end. Their difficult situation was compounded when they heard the news of the fatal accident that occurred on County Road 2 on Thursday, May 16, 2019 – the day before the accident occurred at the restaurant.

“The gentleman who passed away there actually used to work for us,” Hussain said.

“It’s definitely been a bit of a challenge this week.”

That said, Hussain credited his “great group of people” at Jiffy Grill for banding together and pushing through to ensure the business could reopen as soon as possible. And, on Wednesday, May 22, the restaurant reopened at 7 a.m., resuming their regular business hours.

“We appreciate everyone’s support and asking about everyone’s safety, and we’re happy to announce that we’ve reopened, full service, no change to our hours,” Hussain said.

Hussain also said that he and his staff wanted to make sure that the first responders on the scene of the accident at the restaurant – Kingston Police, Kingston Fire and Rescue, and Frontenac Paramedics – were appropriately thanked for their work.

“They helped make sure that nobody got hurt and that the accident got handled cleanly and efficiently,” he said.

“They also did their due diligence to make sure an accident doesn’t happen like that again.”

And while everything is back to normal again at the busy eatery, there’s still something missing that makes Hussain want to reach out to the public to share the good news of their reopening.

“Unfortunately we don’t have a sign right now while they’re doing the work [on the building], which was another reason why I’m trying to reach as many people as I can: To let them know that we’re still ready to go and everything is running like normal,” he said.

“We’re ready to continue the service we have delivered in the west end for the past 25 years.”