ROANOKE, Va. – Two restaurants in Grandin Village are nearly ready for their grand reopening.
Community Inn and On the Rise have both been closed since a massive fire that happened early Easter Sunday. The owners of both restaurants now say they may be ready to open together by Thanksgiving.
"I can't wait to see everybody back in here," Community Inn owner Mont Morrow said. "It'll be amazing. I think we'll be busy for quite a while."
"I've got customers asking me every day and blowing up my (Facebook) messenger," said On the Rise owner Jeff Batson. "I just keep telling everybody, 'As soon as we can.'"
On the Rise suffered relatively minor damages from the fire, but the flames completely gutted the Community Inn. Morrow said he has spent nearly every day since the fire working to repair his restaurant.
"If there's something I can do, I do it," Morrow said. "If not, I make sure there is somebody here doing something instead of sitting here with nothing going on."
There will be some changes once the Community Inn reopens. The booths and bar will be the same, but the wood paneling gave way to exposed brick walls, the four small bathrooms have been replaced with two large bathrooms that comply with the federal Americans with Disabilites Act and everything within the building has been brought up to code.
"Everything will be up-to-date, and we shouldn't have to do anything to this place for a long time," Morrow said. "It's changed a lot, but it's going to be nice."