When Corey Fletcher arrived at his Depot Street restaurant Monday to view water damage caused by a ruptured hot-water pipe, he knew immediately that a bad year, drawing to a close, had gotten worse.
“I unlocked the door and everywhere there were streams of water,” Fletcher, the owner of the Revival Kitchen and Bar, said. “Water was pouring in, running toward the low spots, through any spot it could find to head downward.”
That just happens to be where the home of Angelina’s Ristorante Italiano is too. Both establishments suffered extensive damage – tiles, drywall and insulation had plummeted from their ceilings to their floors under the weight of water – and are closed for in-house dining for the foreseeable future.
“It was a mess,” said Fletcher, who doubles as Revival’s chef. “I knew I had to shut the water off. By then, the damage was done.”
Rick Dennison owns Angelina’s, and the two area restaurant owners, like all business people nationwide, looked forward to pandemic-free normalcy sometime in the new year. They’ve been linked for several years, sharing the building at 11 Depot Street, and sometimes causing confusion over which establishment was upstairs, on ground level, and which was below it, in a basement-like feel.
Dennison is well known here, a local businessman who opened Angelina’s 23 years ago. He mentioned a silver lining here, another example of local business people helping one another during a year like none other.
He cited nearby Cheers Grille and Bar, which has opened its kitchen to Dennison so he could keep his end of the bargain and deliver his pre-ordered, pre-made Christmas meals. Lasagna is a big hit.
“We’re fortunate to have Cheers,” said Dennison, who’s 53. “They’re letting me use their kitchen for orders to prep and cook.”
While the flood originated in Fletcher’s restaurant and might have resulted from an outdated pipe, Dennison viewed the damage to his restaurant and the change to his life with heart, not disdain, despite the three feet of water he discovered in his kitchen Monday morning.
“We’re good neighbors,” said Dennison, “and we’re in this together.”
Fletcher opened his business upstairs four years ago next month. He grew up in Milford and moved to Concord 15 years ago. He went from washing dishes at a family restaurant to culinary school at the former New Hampshire College.
Then he cooked at the high-end Granite Restaurant in the Centennial Inn, known as one of the finest restaurants in the city. He was hard on himself before opening Revival.
“I think there’s always room for improvement in the culinary scene in Concord and globally,” he said. “There’s always new cooking techniques, and being here has created more of a management basis for me as well as an avenue to improve my cooking.”
Like Dennison, Fletcher continued preparing holiday pre-ordered meals for customers after the flood, once he got permission from the Health Department that his kitchen had met required standards.
Earlier, he had taken precautions, the ones we all grew accustomed to. For 12 weeks, he had take-out only. Then he built a deck outside for safer socially-distanced summer dining. Then he moved inside, at half capacity, insisting on masks and spacing.
Then, last Monday, more change.
“This is probably our seventh or eighth way of doing business in less than a year,” Fletcher said. “That is what people in this industry are bred for. They have to make decisions at a fast-paced dinner service, and a situation like this is no different.”
He continued: “We’ve always had a lot of community support and good followers and regulars who have supported us prior to this, and I have no doubt the community will surround us and Angelina’s as well.”
Both Dennison and Fletcher said the flooding won’t spoil their family Christmases, and both hope to open their doors early in 2021.
Dennison said hearing his 2½-year-old son say “Ho, ho, ho, merry kissmas,” has been enough to distract him from recent events.
Fletcher looked back on the year and couldn’t help but laugh. More of a scoff, really.
“When this first happened, I was all right,” Fletcher said. “I’m pretty optimistic. I see myself as a calm and even-keeled kind of person, and it takes a lot to rattle me, but as the days go on, the stress builds.
“This was definitely a bad way to end the year.”
The Link Lonk
December 25, 2020 at 01:52AM
https://www.concordmonitor.com/Covid-flooding-are-a-pipeline-to-disaster-37958895
Depot Street restaurants flooded with bad news, hope to dry out soon - Concord Monitor
https://news.google.com/search?q=dry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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