LITTLE ROCK, Ark.– “I couldn’t believe it, it was completely surreal,” David Shipps, General Manager of Midtown Billiards said.
How do you put back together something that can never really be replaced?
“It was right around lunch time and I rushed up here hoping, praying it was a joke,” Shipps said.
David Shipps has been forced to learn how to restore historic restaurants after a fire.
“The fire hit us all the same way because its like you’re watching your house burn down, its pretty bad, even gets me now a bit,” Shipps said.
His Little Rock last night staple, Midtown Billiards, back on the mend after a fire destroyed it last September.
“They are finishing up all the main construction here, all the cabinets are in, all the walls are up, they’re getting everything finished,” Shipps said.
While Shipps tries to recreate down to the booths, he knows some memorabilia will have to write its own new chapter.
“People like to put their own little quirky sayings up on the walls and of course that’s all gone,” Shipps said.
Just as Shipps’ construction settles, another Arkansas fixture went up in flames this week.
“When you have some place that’s iconic like Cotham’s or even like Midtown, so much of what makes it that is because the experiences that were inside the bar,” Shipps said.
Shipps now passing on advice to the owners whose emotions are still smoldering.
“You got to have patience, you got to have perseverance, you got to have a vision and you know, he’ll get through it,” Shipps said.
Midtown Billiards is set to open in mid to late June for a grand re-opening.
