PIKESVILLE, Md. — Jilly's Bar and Grill in Pikesville is planning its long awaited reopening.
The Baltimore County landmark was destroyed and forced to close last October when a local man allegedly set it on fire.
On Sunday, the restaurant announced on Facebook that it had purchased the Brendali Italian Ristorante and Aqua Vision Care buildings next door.
WMAR 2 News spoke with Co-Owner Kathie Reich about overcoming the arson fire.
“It was just a very hard day, a hard week, a hard month after that, a hard Christmas trying to get things together, but you know we’re resilient,” said Reich, “We’re coming back. We’re not going to leave a hole in Pikesville. We love it here. We love our business here.”
Reich says the new Jilly’s will retain some of its old features, but it will be bigger and better than before.
“The kitchen is like, gosh, I’d say 10 times as nice as what we had,” Reich told us, “The inside… it will hold more seating and then what we’re going to do is we’re going to cut through and where the old Jilly’s used to be, we’re going to do a patio.”
Reich adds that of the 24 former employees who lost their jobs following the fire, every single one of them has expressed an interest in coming back when Jilly’s opens anew.
Although there is no concrete reopening date, Jilly's is targeting sometime in late May to mid June.
RELATED: Pikesville man charged in connection to fire at Jilly’s Bar and Grill
Police ultimately charged David McDermott with arson. He was spotted at the scene of the fire and told to leave the previous day after bothering customers seated outside.
In January a judge ruled he was incompetent to stand trial, according to online court records.
