Hawthornes returns from the ashes
The look and feel - fireplace, extensive beer selection, seating, even the menu - are pretty much as you'd remember.
Chris Fetfatzes and Heather Annechiarico's lives turned upside down the morning of Feb. 21, 2014, when they arrived at Hawthornes, their Bella Vista beer shop/restaurant, to see firefighters playing water on their burning building at 11th and Fitzwater Streets.
They vowed to rebuild.
As Fetfatzes explained, that wasn't too easy. He could stand in the dining room and see clear to the sky. No roof. Then last winter's bitter cold broke the water pipes in the shell.
But now, Fetfatzes says, a weight has been lifted from their shoulders.
All summer and fall, the building was put back together, from the restaurant to the apartments above.
Hawthornes reopened this week. The look and feel - fireplace, extensive beer selection, seating, even the menu - are pretty much as you'd remember.
Hawthornes will begin beer delivery this weekend. Fetfatzes last year asked the state Liquor Control Board for an opinion on the legality of it, and the board attorney said it was possible if certain conditions were met. Fetfatzes received a license allowing him do so. He said that the store's app and website would have 140 varieties and that Hawthornes would deliver to a 10-block radius till midnight at first.
Hawthornes is open Tuesday through Sunday.