A with Firefly Tapas Kitchen & Bar co-owner John Simmons

Firefly Tapas Kitchen & Bar had to close its Paradise Road doors in April because of an outbreak of salmonella. The outbreak, which public-health officials traced to contaminated chorizo, sickened nearly 300 people from 27 states and forced changes in how the company ran its kitchen. It hired a dedicated food-safety expert, signed up chefs and managers for food-handling certification classes and added a program to monitor food safety at potential contamination points. The goal? To become an "industry leader" in food safety, co-owner John Simmons said.Simmons has spent the past seven months winning back regulars and attracting new customers. A month after it closed, Firefly opened a new Paradise Road location down the street, a deal that had been in the works before the salmonella outbreak.

The incident didn't affect its Sahara Avenue location. As business ticks back up, Simmons talks about recapturing customers' trust, his next business move and how he unwinds from stress.What's the biggest thing you've done to get your customers back?It's been more of a process. I liken it to a brush fire. When it flames, there's not a lot you can really do about it. You have to wait for it to burn out. All of the negative information and misinformation out there — there was not a lot you could do about it. Now, we've turned to getting the word out about who we are. We're a great company, a homegrown company.

We started it from the ground up 10 years ago, and we have built it into a company that hired over 200 people. We're not some guy from out of town who's mining the Strip for tourist dollars and shipping profits back to New York. We live here, we're good people, we started a business and a bad thing happened.How's business? Are people returning?Every month, business has increased. The great thing is, most people never stopped coming. We have such a great fan base, and so many people have been to our restaurant so many times. Not a lot of businesses would still be around. It's a testament to the strength of our reputation and the people who work for us that we were able to survive such an awful occurrence. We also see a lot of new faces, so it's good.