DUNDALK, Md. — After fighting through a pandemic, just to be taken out of business for more than a month by a water main break, the Boulevard Diner in Dundalk makes a come back!
They're back to serving something special beyond what their guests see on a menu.
RELATED: Local diner out of business a month since water main break
'You never appreciate a good thing until its gone.' It's a lesson Marc Tsakiris learned the hard way; but, he was happier than ever to open back up Tuesday.
"We were by here every week saying open yet? open yet?" recalled Denny Urbach.
For the folks who see the Boulevard Diner as an extension of their dining room table, it's a miracle they're back open, one not even the rain could stop.
"We've been coming here at least once or twice a week ever since they opened 20 years ago," Urbach told WMAR.
He, his wife and daughter tell us the diner has always been a special place to their family for every occasion, regardless of the generation.
"We asked him Trey where would like to go to dinner, any restaurant you want for graduation, he said the diner," he remembered.
"That's why its kind of emotional seeing everybody come back again. Those people that believe in us and they've been with us since the beginning," the owner Marc Tsakiris shared.
He showed WMAR a week ago how floodwaters took them out of business for weeks damaging his restaurant and all it took to run it.
"We were not making anything at all, trying to pay our employees and pay our bills that were a little past due so there was a moment where I was like whoa maybe we wont be back," he said.
Staying afloat during that time was a bigger challenge than he ever expected for both him and the diner employees.
"Not being able to know when we'll be back, when we'll see everybody because there was multiple times where they were like we might be able to open. but we just weren't sure when it was going to happen," said Angel and Madison who both work at the diner.
Tuesday's opening was a special reunion for them and many of their regular customers but for Angel and Madison, "It was just getting here and seeing her, I love her. definitely our coworkers we missed them."
Marc appreciates doing again what he grew up watching his father do, giving their guests something special to always look forward to.
