Set to go, then setback: Flood forces St. John's pub to delay opening
Fort Amherst Pub was supposed to start serving food Friday but a leak from upstairs has dampened those plans
Fort Amherst Pub is making the wrong kind of splash in downtown St. John's. Owner and head chef, Evan Bursey, arrived at his almost-ready restaurant mid-morning Saturday to find water dripping from the ceiling.
"I was up to my ankles," he said, estimating "hundreds of gallons" of water soaked the floor, countertops and kitchen appliances.
The pub was set to undergo final inspections this week. Opening night was supposed to be Friday, July 8.
"All the furniture was set up and ready to be sat at."
Bursey, 24, says a leak that originated from a bathroom at the former dance bar above his pub has derailed those plans.
"Financially, it's a roll of the dice at this point," he said, adding that as a young entrepreneur, he doesn't have a lot of money.
"I just had this crazy thought that 'I'm ruined.'"
The leak
Fort Amherst Pub security footage shows the first drip at about 5 a.m. Saturday morning. Bursey said when he arrived at the pub and shut off the water supply about five and a half hours later, much more water was coming down.
"We took 12 commercial mop buckets and there was still inches of water on the floor," he said.
He estimates the leak has ruined $30,000 worth of new kitchen equipment. Some appliances have started rusting. Fixing the structural damage, he thinks, could take more than four months.
"In a old building like this, you start tearing out one thing, who knows what else needs to be [fixed]?" he said.
"It's like Jenga, right, you start pulling out the blocks from the bottom and who knows what up top is going to have to crumble?"
Next steps
Fort Amherst Pub is located at 320 Water Street where Bistro Sofia used to be. Bursey has been renovating the space for the past four months.
"We're in a place now where we need to start making money, we need to start paying down all the things we've spent money on since April and, yeah, that's virtually impossible without income."
He's in the process of cutting off monthly payments for internet and a point of sale system he signed up for when opening night was around the corner.
Training for Fort Amherst Pub's 10 employees was supposed to start Tuesday. Bursey informed them their start date was being pushed back.
Bursey said in the coming days, he'll be asking questions like "How long is it going to take to open? How long are we going to be until we can actually get some income and if that's greater than what the losses would be then, what's Plan B?"
The ultimate goal, Bursey said, is to remain in the same space but if money requires, he'll be considering other places including food trucks.