A few years ago, a good friend of mine purchased a restaurant two miles from my house. It was a great little breakfast/lunch place that had a really nice hot/cold buffet/salad bar, had good coffee and excellent sandwiches.
For him, it was his dream. He had worked in the food industry for years as a salesman and always wanted a place of his own. This restaurant was perfect for him because it had been established for years and it was only a few miles from his house. The shop was also about a half a mile down the road from numerous large corporate offices and he soon increased his catering business to them. The road was also a major route for locals to get to the main highway. He had a large crowd come down from the offices during lunch time and often picked up business from travelers going to and from the highway.
It was good for me too because it gave me an opportunity to see him more often and to have somewhere to go during the day to get out of the house. I would often bring my laptop and work while enjoying a cheesesteak for lunch or breakfast pizza with a cup of Joe in the morning.
Business was going well. He was happy.
Then the road work started. The town ripped up the entire road between his restaurant and the office complex. For months.... it was a dirt road. Soon, people started avoiding the area. No one wanted to drive on that road if they could help it. People started avoiding the area and finding new routes to the highway.
It was noticeable that the lunch time crowds were dwindling. Within a few months, he informed me that he was going to have to shut the doors. He no longer was getting the business he needed to keep the shop alive.
I remember his last day well. I knew it was the end and went in for an early lunch. When I got there, he told me that he informed his staff of the situation.... and they all left! He still had a lunch time crowd coming in and no staff to help.
He is a good friend so I did what any friend would do and I donned an apron and hopped on the grill. (Not litterally... that would hurt.) For the next few hours, he and I worked together to get through his final lunch crowd.... then we shut and locked the doors.
I miss my friends restaurant.
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