Perkins reconstruction well under way
Restaurant to reopen later this year
Stripped all the way down to its 2 by 6 studs, the Perkins Family Restaurant and Bakery on U.S. 2 in Evergreen looks - at least from the inside - like a skeletal shell.
There is no carpet covering the sub-flooring. All the drywall has been removed.
"Where it's at right now, it's basically a frame of a building," restaurant owner Craig Witte said.
Damaged in an April fire that was eventually fought by nearly 50 firefighters responding from six area departments, Perkins is undergoing a major reconstruction project.
In the next two weeks, construction crews will begin repairing portions of the building's heavily smoke-damaged interior. Then contractors will replace a significant portion of the business' electrical wiring and plumbing, much of which was destroyed by the fire.
Despite the immense amount of work yet to be completed, Perkins could re-open as early as November.
"We're hoping for Thanksgiving, but the reality might be somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas," Witte said.
Because the building remained structurally sound, Witte decided not to rebuild the restaurant from the foundation up - effectively trading a longer renovation period for what he hopes will be a lower price tag.
"It appears slow… but we have to recreate everything in regards to the plumbing and electrical," Witte said following a Tuesday morning meeting with his contractor. "The delay is that we have to take it apart to put it all back again."
Razing and rebuilding the restaurant would have taken only five or six months, but would have cost $800,000. Even so, the cost of new furniture, fixtures and equipment is already running at about $250,000, said Witte, who couldn't yet attach a total cost to re-opening the restaurant.
While dealing with the fire's aftermath may be a major headache, the reconstruction has provided an opportunity to improve the restaurant's interior.
"We've done some interesting things," Witte said. "It'll be a nice looking building when we're done. It'll look totally different and be more accommodating for our meetings and our parties."
One of the rooms available for patrons tended to be freezing cold in the winter and blazing hot in the summer. That problem has been fixed, Witte said. Another portion of the dining area has been made larger to serve bigger groups of people.
"We've had requests before from parties of 50 and 60 which we couldn't accommodate," Witte said. "Now we'll be able to do that."
Repairs to the restaurant didn't begin in earnest until insurance adjusters finished searching for the fire's cause.
A fire inspector out of Colorado, hired by the restaurant's insurance company, determined towels left overnight in the laundry dryer ignited. A second fire inspector out of Columbia Falls, hired by another insurance company, confirmed that finding.
Portions of the restaurant's kitchen had been burning for some time before firefighters responded to the fire call at 3 a.m. on April 25. The restaurant suffered extensive fire, smoke, heat and water damage, prompting firefighters to categorize the building as a total loss.
The fire was contained mostly to the kitchen, but flames managed to eat through a portion of the south wall. Crews got the fire under control at about 4:30 a.m. and extinguished it just after 5 a.m.
Of the 49 employees left jobless by the fire, those who said they would return to Perkins were paid for 60 days, said Witte. When the restaurant re-opens, it will be with a new staff - but Witte did say he hopes to rehire people who worked there before.
Witte opened the restaurant with a partner from Butte in November 1995, housing it in a new building. Witte, a Republican state representative running for re-election this year in House District 8, and his wife later bought the original partner out.
Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com