Kelseys in Owen Sound is welcoming customers back after a fire forced the business to closed over a year ago.
General Manager Randeep Lall says the local restaurant officially re-opened on Dec. 16 after an electrical fire caused significant damage to the business in August, 2023.
“It was a long process going through the insurance and coming up with a new design,” says Lall. “Because the fire had a lot of damage and even the water damage as well that they used to put out the fire, it was a long process, but I think as we say, it ends well.”
She says restoration efforts included replacing almost everything in the restaurant including the kitchen, bathrooms, the layout of the restaurant, and furniture. The bar top is the only thing that remains from the fire.
She says the community response to the business reopening has been beautiful.
“When I see our guests come in and they have tears in their eyes, that was something really beautiful,” says Lall. “I don’t think I can ever experience that in like a GTA area or anything, it’s just another place for people where they can go and eat. Over here, it felt like people are coming back home and a lot of our regulars came in and gave lots of hugs, a lot of happy tears. It made me so happy.”
She adds while they did welcome some of their old staff, others had moved on.
“It was a long, long process. Nobody can wait like almost a year and a half to find another job, so some of them did settle down where they are, and some of them waited for us and came back to us right as we did our training. We did a job fair, two of them, and welcomed a new family back in. So we have a mix of new and old staff,” says Lall.
Lall says she and her husband Jaspreet, who owns the business, did not have to do much in the way of reopening the business as the majority was handled by the parent company.
“They are the one who made the budget, they dealt with the insurance,” says Lall. “We didn’t have to do a lot other than looking at the drawings and doing other things, but they were great.”
She says while they do not have a date set, they are planning a grand reopening.
