SCOTTSVILLE, N.Y. — It was one year ago this week that COVID-19 arrived in Monroe County.

The pandemic would prove to be devastating for some and challenging for everyone.

Many local restaurants were forced to close their doors for good. One restaurant in Scottsville is only just now reopening.

For the first time since New York restaurants were forced to close last March, a Scottsville Diner switched its sign to "open" and allowed customers back in.

"We have been waiting all year for them to open back up. It's our favorite place to go for breakfast, lunch dinner," said Tracy Lewis of Scottsville.

On March 16, 2020, restaurants got an order from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to close their doors. The next day, Scottsville diner had one day of St. Patrick's day meals for takeout And then said an indefinite goodbye to customers.

"We're going to shut down for two weeks and we thought 'okay that's great.' Well, then the two weeks went by and then the governor kept extending it and extending it and then the mandates and the masks and only takeout. We couldn't do only takeout. We're a small town and the restaurant's so small we couldn't do just takeout it would not work for us," said co-owner Alexandra Theodorou.

The family-run business has been around for 25 years. Theodorou and Voula Dragos are co-owners with their brother. Dragos says they had to work some part-time jobs and depend on savings to get through, but they made it. And with the governor giving restaurants the okay to do business at 75% capacity starting March 19, she says they finally felt like they could open safely.

"It was just time. We just wanted to get back to work and wanted to get back into the routine. And we wanted to show everybody that we missed them and that we really wanted to be back," said Theodorou.

They were also able to use the time closed to renovate the diner. Now, it has a fresh new look to mark their reopening.

Theodorou says the community has made them feel welcome again.

"For a while there, you kind of get in your head like no one cares if we're not there, they don't miss us. But it sounds like people are missing us so we're happy to be back," Theodorou said.