By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
When the Kansas City Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50 years last February, it seemed like 2020 was going to be a great year.
Yeah, not so much.
A little over a month later, countless businesses and schools were forced to close their doors due to the novel coronavirus.
River Bluff Brewing in St. Joseph was among them. They were closed for more than six weeks before welcoming back a limited number of patrons.
Nothing is quite the same as it was before the pandemic, but River Bluff co-founder and vice president Edison Derr looks forward to seeing the community once again rally around the Chiefs this Super Bowl Sunday.
"It seems like we're kind of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel possibly soon," Derr said regarding the pandemic. "Now toward what we hope is the end here, we kind of get a local excitement build-up. We couldn't all go to a lot of games, we couldn't all do a lot of things. We couldn't get together with a ton of people, but it's always exciting when something local is happening like this."
Jake's Steakhouse and Sports Bar in downtown St. Joseph is in the same boat. After seeing customers come back in during the regular season and playoffs, kitchen manager Jesse Vidal says Jake's is ready to safely celebrate the Super Bowl for a second consecutive year.
"We're going to start our own little Super Bowl party," Vidal said. "It's going to kind of start out like a pre-party and if all goes well, we'll have a lot of people stick around and watch the game with us."
Of course, watch parties won't quite be at full capacity yet. Much like during the holiday season, the CDC and other health experts recommend keeping Super Bowl gatherings COVID friendly at home if at all possible.
Vidal says there's still parameters in place to keep patrons safe.
"You have to have a mask on," he said. "Stay six feet apart if you're not wearing a mask at your table and things of that nature. And just wiping down tables and all that. We're just doing everything we can to try and move this along and...not make this harder on us. That's for sure."
Vidal says the ongoing pandemic and restrictions make it tough to gauge just how busy they'll be this weekend.
"With the restrictions and things like that, it is difficult," Vidal admitted. "People seem to enjoy doing their own thing on Super Bowl Sunday, too."
Whether they're at the local bar, or in their living room, Chiefs fans from all across the region have been stocking up on the latest AFC Championship and Super Bowl 55 gear.
Rally House, a St. Joseph sports apparel store at the East Hills Shopping Center, has been seeing an inflow of fans from Chiefs Kingdom - from Missouri and beyond.
"We have all of those people from Iowa and Nebraska," Rally House manager-in-training Caroline Ruden said. "They're all coming through here, trying to get their Chiefs stuff as well. So, we're getting lots of people."
Ruden says hats, Super Bowl jerseys and the new AFC Championship shirts have been the most popular items in recent days.
"COVID kind of hit us hard," Ruden said. "Then, we cleaned up the store getting ready for the potential of an AFC Championship, and here we are. Meeting those standards."
River Bluff, which is getting ready to open a second location in Kansas City in early summer, gave away a Chiefs jersey during last year's Super Bowl.
That won't happen this year, due to the ongoing pandemic and the uncertainty of how many people will actually go out in public to watch the game.
Like everything else, even Super Bowl watch parties will look a little different this year due to COVID restrictions.
Besides the Chiefs making it (or running it) back, one other thing has remained the same from last year's Super Bowl Sunday.
The spirit of Chiefs Kingdom.
"If people are here or down the street somewhere else or if they all stay home," Derr said, "it's just awesome to see on social media how excited everyone is."
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.