WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Tuckerbox, the coffeehouse and Turkish restaurant that’s a fixture in downtown White River Junction, reopened Tuesday night after being closed for more than a month because of flood-related damages.
The restaurant, which is co-owned and operated by Jackie Oktay and her husband, Vural, is now open Tuesday through Saturday, but is only be serving its dinner menu and is closed during the day as both the owners and staff are still working to clean and repair a vital part of their operation and the place that received the worst damage: the basement.
Roughly 90% of the restaurant’s storage was in the basement, Oktay said, which was totally destroyed.
Jackie and Vural had just embarked on a family vacation to Turkey when they heard the news on Aug. 17 that the Gates Briggs Building, which not only houses Tuckerbox but also fellow restaurant Piecemeal Pies and a slew of other White River Junction businesses, had flooded with more than 300,000 gallons of water when a water line that fed the basement’s sprinkler system “blew apart.” The entire building was closed for 36 hours and the basement areas were flooded with nearly 3 feet of water.
The shutoff valve for the sprinklers, located under a recently repaved North Main Street, had to be located with a metal detector by responding Hartford public works and fire department crews because it was unmarked. The repaving was part of White River Junction’s $5 million overhaul of its downtown water and sewage system that interim Hartford Public Works Director Jeremy Delisle said should be completed by early November.
Delisle said almost all of the project’s substantial excavation is finished and that the last thing crews need to do is a final repaving. The project’s latest phase, which started in June, included replacing water and sewage lines along South and Main streets and encompasses three sides of the Gates Briggs Building.
Following the flood, most of the businesses in the building returned to work that day, and others such as Piecemeal Pies were able to come back by the end of August. A quick reopening for Tuckerbox was impossible, Oktay said, because of just how much they lost and all the work they’d have to do to get back to a semblance of normality.
More than 175 pieces of kitchen equipment, including a brand-new, walk-in refrigerator/freezer, worth in total around $120,000 and food and ingredients worth roughly $300,000, in Oktay’s estimate, were lost in the flood. The basement’s floors, walls, plumbing and electric all need to be replaced, though Oktay said work has already begun to install a new concrete slab for the floor’s foundation.
Oktay said the restaurant won’t be able to open for anything more than dinner until the new basement is completed, which could be months away. She said they normally serve around 400 people per day, but that’s impossible with such limited space to prepare food.
“Usually I have four to five prep cooks working,” Oktay said. “And now we’re down to one because there’s no space.”
Oktay said she and Vural have still been paying all Tuckerbox staff since the restaurant initially closed. Piecemeal Pies also continued to pay its employees during their two-week hiatus.
Owner Justin Barrett said the bakery raised $3,500 through selling the cookie dough of its customer-favorite chocolate chip and sea salt cookies, all of which helped in paying employees.
“(That $3,500) allowed us to really stay on top of bills and payroll while we’re waiting for insurance checks to come in,” Barrett said. “It was just so amazing to see that, once again, after all that small businesses have been through, worrying about COVID and downtown construction, that we still have this community (in White River) that we love and who loves us back.”
Barrett said the restaurant’s expanded hours — it now opens at 8 a.m. for coffee and pastries before its lunch menu opens at 10 a.m. — was something his team wanted to do to support the locals that live and work near the restaurant.
Oktay said several staff members “worked their butts off” over the last month trying to clean and dust every section of the restaurant exposed to flooding damage. The dining room floor also had to be replaced after so much mud and grime was tracked through it as people attempted to salvage equipment and goods from the basement. Oktay said they were able to replace the flooring with money from the GoFundMe account they set up in the flood’s wake.
As of Friday, the fund had raised $68,230 of its $100,000 goal from a total of 556 donations.
Oktay said they’d received nearly $30,000 in just the first two days the fundraiser was live.
“We were at the point where we were (wondering) how we’d even move forward from this,” Oktay said. “Between the GoFundMe and the support, the emails we got, people offering their time, labor, monetary donations — it just gives you such an energy and makes you want to come back even stronger.”
Hartford Selectboard member Rocket praised Tuckerbox’s return, saying that every healthy community needs a gathering place, and Tuckerbox fills that need.
“I feel like Tuckerbox is one of those true, central institutions that we have in White River or in Hartford,” Rocket said. “The fact they were closed was obviously horrible for them, but it was also a big damper on the community and the community’s ability to gather, meet each other and interface.
“On every level it’s just amazing (having them back).”
Ray Couture can be reached at 1994rbc@gmail.com.