ELYRIA, Ohio — After more than nine months, Expresso Bakery in Elyria reopened its doors Friday morning.
In February, a car crashed into the building, crumbling walls and destroying equipment, and leaving an employee pinned behind the counter.
“It was just a nightmare,” said Expresso Bakery owner Keith Black.
The bakery was forced to close, initially planning to undergo repairs and renovations that would last four to six months. However, delays pushed the opening back more than nine months.
At one point, Black said he wasn’t sure if he would be able to reopen. However, his dedication to the business pushed him forward.
3News' Carmen Blackwell was there as the bakery reopened Friday morning, which you can watch below...
“I had a passion for it, and I just wanted to keep going,” he said. “I’m going to try to win. I’m not going let someone going 60 miles per hour ruin my goals and my dreams.”
Ward 1 Elyria city councilman Andrew Lipian helped set up a GoFundMe after the crash, aiming to support the bakery through their recovery.
“They didn’t give up, and they kept with it,” Lipian said. “I’m hoping the community will reward them for that tenacity by patronizing them even more than they did before.”
Lipian called small businesses the “bread and butter” of communities, and said the temporary loss of Expresso Bakery hit the community hard.
“It’s like the warm fireplace around which people in Elyria gather, and it’s a great community business,” he said.
Now fully repaired, the business is ready to be back up and running, hopefully coming back even stronger than before.
“I’ve been closed 9 months and 19 days, so I learned a lot,” Black said. “We got a new POS (point-of-sale) system, a new credit card system, we kind of worked out all our bugs.”
Black said they also used the last months to get even more organized, and develop new donut flavors he hopes to roll out over time.
In preparation for Friday’s grand re-opening, Black plans to work through the night to bake about 450 muffins and 3,000 donuts, all fresh for customers.
“I think I said before that we’ll be back, well, we’re back, and we’re ready to go,” Black said.
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