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By Lee Hughes
Staff Reporter 

Fingers crossed for Lefevre Street Bakery & Deli

Fate of popular downtown Medical Lake restaurant remains unknown

 

Last updated 8/8/2019 at 8:14am

What’s going on with the Lefevre Street Bakery and Café in Medical Lake? That question has been on many people’s minds since the restaurant suddenly shut down just over a month ago.

A July 6 post on the business’s Facebook page, and notes taped to its doors, said a leak in the heating and cooling system was dripping into the kitchen, forcing the restaurant’s closure until it could be repaired.

Then a July 20 Facebook update explained that water damage from the leak was more extensive than expected.

“It’s looking like it’s going to be awhile longer until repairs are completed,” the post stated.

The trouble actually began in June, according to the bakery’s co-owner, Kevin Gerhart, when the ceiling started leaking. So he called his HVAC contractor.

“They came out and supposedly repaired it,” he said during a phone interview.

But then it happened again on July 6. “By then the ceiling had weakened and it partially collapsed … so we just had to shut down.”

After some runaround by his HVAC contractor, and filing an insurance claim with his insurer, a remediation company was dispatched for repairs. But additional water damage was uncovered, requiring kitchen vent hoods to be removed to accommodate further repair.

“So that’s really where we’re at,” Gerhart said. “I wasn’t a very happy camper.”

At this point there is no timeline for a reopening, he said. His biggest concern is that more water damage will be found.

“I can’t make any commitment,” he said of a reopening date. “I would have not thought it would take this long, but it has.”

Asked if he was planning on folding the business or was committed to reopening in the future, Gerhart would not speculate either way.

“I don’t know what the situation is, I really don’t,” he said. “We’re in an unknown situation right now.”

When they closed, he and his wife and co-owner, Brenda, gave away the restaurants perishable food to the Medical Lake Food Bank, Gerhart said, and were forced to layoff employees.

Any reopening would be “difficult,” he said, more like starting the business from scratch again, restocking his refrigerators and freezers and hiring and training new employees.

“The biggest scary part for us is to re-staff it,” Gerhart said. “Staffing is a huge deal.”

He expressed concern about finding employees, and pointed to the need to compete with the growing number of West Plains employers like Amazon.

“It was difficult to keep 11 fulltime employees,” he said, noting that he could deal with turning over one or two employees at a time. “Now I’m starting from scratch.”

Even after repairs are completed there will be a training period while he trains new employees — even if he gets some of his previous staff to return — reorder new supplies and build up the restaurant’s inventory.

“I’m really sorry I can’t make any commitment,” Gerhart said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Although there had been a small year-over-year dip in sales that he attributed to the opening of Jake’s Old Fashioned Burgers and The Fischin’ Hole Saloon, business had picked back up.

“It was nothing that would cause us to close our doors,” he said, adding, “We’ve been very well supported by the community.”

Gerhart was happier about the situation than his customers.

“We’re just sick about it, but what can you do?” he said.

The closure of the bakery isn’t an isolated issue but is a case study in small-town trickle-down economics — other downtown businesses have noticed a drop in customers since the bakery closed.

Dona Wagner, store manager of Fresh Design Gallery & Rentals just down the street from the bakery said visitors to the business had been down since the bakery closed.

“They come out of the bakery and shop,” Wagner said.

Gerri Johnson, owner of Farm Salvation across the street, agreed.

“We had a great morning crowd when the bakery was there,” Johnson said, noting that people would wander into her store and shop after a meal at the bakery.

She estimated her foot traffic was down as much as 50 percent.

Anne Starr, director of Care and Share, estimated her walk-in business was down about the same amount.

Walk-in business was also down at Fresh Design Gallery & Rentals, according to owner Holly Hoffman.

Lee Hughes can be reached at lee@cheneyfreepress.com.

 

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