Did I Ever Tell You About Our Restaurant?

Once upon a time we had a dream. It was a dream to own our own restaurant, and one day that dream came true.

We bought a restaurant downtown and made plans to remodel it, including ripping off this whole exterior facade and re-bricking it to fit in with the downtown architecture better.

BEFORE:

The lights and ceiling decorations as well as the neon were on the hit list. We decided to restore the floor.




This dance floor was taken out completely.




One surprise we had is that when we removed the rotten wood floors, there was just dirt underneath, no foundation. We had to start over completely and lay a cement foundation. We also had to re-roof the entire building, which was totally unexpected.

AFTER:

After nearly a year of construction, we had our new restaurant and were ready to open. With the new brick front and windows, the place had a much brighter, cheerier feeling to it.





The bar was refinished and stained and covered with a copper top. All of the gaudy neon lights were removed and replaced.




The booths were redesigned and upholstered and new bar tables and chairs were added.




Airy open archways were put in between the two sides of the restaurant.




The floors were tiled and a local artist's paintings put on display.


My husband wrote the menu for it and was the owner/general manager.

We partnered with a family member and opened for business. It was a smashing success and quickly became the most popular restaurant in the area.

Then one day, evil struck. Actually evil had been lurking, but we did not know. Our partner was bad, very bad, oh so really rotten bad.

And we were financially destroyed. We walked away from the restaurant and away from the dream.

The End.