STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WJAC) — A popular State College area restaurant is reopened for business, just a few days after a car slammed into the building and partially ended up in the dining room.
While the owners say there is still repair work needed to fix all the damage, they want to thank the community for their support and help in getting their dining room reopened.
On Tuesday morning, the co-owner of Bonfire Old Fashioned BBQ, Glenn Kunig, says he was surprised, to say the least, when he came into open and found an abandoned vehicle smashed into the building, with a sizeable hole in a dining room wall.
“I thought he had a drive-thru installed and didn’t tell me.”
Kunig says he called 911 and did a quick search of the scene, making sure no one was possibly injured or still in the vehicle.
“I wasn’t expecting to see anybody alive in that car but found out later that the driver got out of the car, made a phone call, got picked up, and went home.”
Video from a neighboring business shows the crash happening at 2 in the morning Tuesday, the vehicle coming across off the parking lot off a nearby roadway and then hitting the building.
But then the question was, even though the restaurant continued their catering business, how soon could they reopen their dining room.
As it turns out, sooner than many thought, with the building owner and others helping to quickly patch the wall. Even other businesses and customers came in to help.
“We just want to thank the community for all their love, support and prayers. Everybody contacting us, just reaching out, to make sure if we needed anything.”
On Thursday morning, customers returned to the popular BBQ joint.
As for the crash investigation, State College police say the driver of the vehicle has been identified.
Dining and Cooking