“Welcome Back!” – The Renovation Story Part 1

“Welcome Back!” is the first thing that pops into my head every time I see someone walk in our front door and quickly look to the left then right, with a puzzled look on their face. Yes indeed, the bar used to be on the other side.

If you recall the bar on your left as you enter the door, we welcome you back because that changed in 2010 when we did the most recent addition to the original building. The original core part of the building where the bar still stands, (but now on the other side) was the first building in this location. The main dining room was added from across the street when they expanded Ryan Road many, many years ago. What is now our kitchen was an apartment and deck over the lower garage. The apartment was attached to the first two buildings sometime in the 1960s.

None of these buildings were intended to do be a full-service restaurant. Around 2008, we began to experience plumbing problems, electrical problems, sewer problems, and more. But because the original building had so many modern-day code violations grandfathered in, the minute we touched anything, all the grandfathered exceptions fell. We had to make the entire building code compliant, including ADA bathrooms, a sprinkler system, and every external door opening out. This meant adding to the front of the building to accommodate the new entryways, moving the entire electrical panel to the other side of the building because the original electric ran into the building over the parking lot and finally, bringing in 6-in water mains from the street, to properly service the sprinkler system.

We started the adventure of construction on June 1, 2010 and finished just before Thanksgiving. We were open through almost the entire construction, starting at 4:00 a.m. and cleaning it all up to open for lunch. In true Erv's fashion, that summer we decorated with hard hats, caution tape and clear plastic tarps so customers could keep tabs on the progress. Like any major construction effort, the entire summer was filled with challenges. From rain in the dining room on a Friday night, to the ceiling falling in the bar on a Wednesday. Fortunately, none of these resulted in any injuries, but may have caused more than a few of the gray hairs that I now sport on my head.

Come back next week and hear how Erv never wanted the addition in the first place but I'm so glad he lived to see it!