No mask? No soup for you! Boise restaurant makes it mandatory — and will offer you one.

Three months ago, Bacon chef and owner John Berryhill had difficulty accepting the sight of a person wearing a mask inside his downtown restaurant — employee or guest.

“It was freakish,” he remembers.

Now?

“It’s not freakish.”

Based on his own personal evolution, Berryhill is confident that Boise diners will become similarly accustomed to his new restaurant mask rule.

Starting Thursday, if you want to eat at Bacon, 121 N. 9th St., you must wear a facial covering. Customers will be allowed to remove it as soon as beverages or food are delivered to the table.

Need to get up and stretch your legs? Visit the restroom? Strap that mask back on.

Customers who don’t have a mask when entering will be offered a free, disposable one.

“We could be affected negatively,” Berryhill admits. “But people are going to get over it. I had never seen somebody wear a mask at first when this whole thing first started. I was like, ‘How are we going to wear a mask in the kitchen?’ ”

Bacon’s COVID-19 rule isn’t short-term. It could be in place for up to a year, Berryhill says. He wishes that state and city leaders had made the decision for him, he adds. Last week, he emailed Gov. Brad Little, Mayor Lauren McLean and City Council President Elaine Clegg. “It’s just definitely easier and simpler,” Berryhill says, “if there is a government entity that makes the mandate.”

But newly tightened city and county coronavirus guidelines rolled out this week have not included customer masks in restaurants.

Berryhill got the idea in early June during an essential trip to Little Rock, Arkansas, to care for his dying father. In May, Arkansas issued a statewide order mandating restaurant staffers who are in contact with customers to wear masks or protective coverings, and diners to wear them when not eating or drinking. “Everybody was wearing masks,” Berryhill says. “Everybody everywhere.”

When Berryhill and his son went out for lunch, it was the first time he’d been inside any restaurant other than Bacon since the pandemic began. After sitting down, his son was politely reprimanded by a waitress for removing his mask, unknowingly violating the rule.

“Everybody was still having a good time at their tables,” Berryhill says. “And we had a good time: ‘OK, this is what we’re doing.’ You go about your life and do it. And we had no problem with it.”

Bacon employees started wearing masks and switching gloves during the COVID-19 crisis, but most customers walk in as if nothing has changed, Berryhill says. Still, they encounter a restaurant with obvious safety precautions. Large, fun bacon graphics on the floor keep people socially distanced as they walk up to the ordering counter, which has a hanging, plexiglass barrier.

Berryhill wants the new mandatory mask rule to feel welcoming. The last thing he would want is for customers to feel like they’ve walked into the Soup Nazi episode from “Seinfeld.” (That said, the Bacon menu does include a delicious tomato basil soup.)

“We have a host that takes them to their table,” Berryhill says. “And then they’re given more by the host about the regulation — the protocols that we’re asking them to follow in more of a conversational tone, and just talking about it. Telling them how to reorder if they want another round of drinks.”

Mask acceptance

Will a few Idaho customers balk? Maybe. We’ve all heard stories about American citizens who act like requiring a mask in a grocery store is a human rights violation.

Even Berryhill’s socially distanced “bacon walk” to the counter has generated occasional resistance. “We’ve never had to kick anybody out,” he says. “We’ve had a couple of people that have chosen to leave — whether it was because of the social distancing or whether it was because of the long line.”

No matter, Berryhill says. He’s committed to serving his tasty, bacon-centric dishes in a safe, clean environment — to smiling Boiseans wearing masks.

“I know they’ll get used to it if they want to go out,” he says. “ ... There will be a lot of people that support this and like it.”

▪ Bacon is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. Online: baconboise.com.

This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 12:18 PM.