Omicron variant impacts Wisconsin restaurant in ironic way

WEST BEND, Wis. - COVID-19 forced many businesses to shut down. Some reopened and are back to business as usual. But the virus is now impacting a West Bend restaurant in a different way.

It is a family business that has been around for more than 30 years. But the West Bend restaurant's name is being tossed around now more than ever. 

"It was crazy hearing all of a sudden, Omicron coming up everywhere," said Alexa Braden, an Omicron employee.

The restaurant shares the same name as COVID-19's most recent variant. The Greek family restaurant is named after the Greek letter for "O."

"Through this, we’ve been able to talk about the restaurant very positively so it’s been really fun to tell people about the name of our restaurant and different things like that," Braden said.

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The pandemic shut down the family business for several weeks. Now, it is hard to not recognize the irony.

"I’m just hoping that the people that do come up here they see the name and especially if they are new and go, ‘Oh, no, no,’" said Douglas Trapp, a long-time customer.

With the doors now reopened and long-time customers filling the tables, employees want people to digest this version of Omicron.

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"People should come on in and try our food because this is a positive way to make something negative into a positive," Braden said. 

"Don’t worry about the name just come on in," Trapp said.