Help Square Scullery Move!

From our start as a food truck to our transition into a full-service "tiny restaurant" - being small & scrappy has been rooted into our core. We've always prided ourselves on our strong ability to adapt, reinvent & roll with the wide variety of punches the past 7 years have thrown at us. To ask for help truly goes against every stubborn fiber of our being, but the time has come, and we need our community now more than ever.

As some of you may be aware, On Christmas a boiler pipe burst due to the extremely frigid temperatures and flooded down into our kitchen for roughly 24 hours. This caused significant damages, but additionally resulted in the loss of all sales during one of the notoriously busiest weeks of the year for restaurants. This also includes New Year's Eve, one of the busiest days of the year. It is an imperative week to finish out the end of the year and fourth quarter as strongly as possible.

Two weeks (and counting) later, we've had no other option but to heartbreakingly announce our closure for the foreseeable future. We just don't have any kind of timeline yet, with very little forward movement regarding damage assessment, repair timelines, and remediation efforts so far. We are also encountering delayed insurance processing due to the magnitude of the storm & others also affected. Simply put, we have everything going out, and nothing coming in, all the while trying to take care of everyone the best that we can. We're staying as optimistic as possible, and are thankful for any movements forward, no matter how small.

With that said, although this is a less-than-ideal situation for so many reasons, it has in turn unexpectedly opened the door to other amazing opportunities for Scullery. It is no surprise or secret that we have been actively looking for a secondary location to move into for quite some time now. So far nothing has clicked quite the right way... until now. The timing of it all is wild, and not exactly how we would have wished for it to unfold in a more traditional sense, but life is funny that way. We just have to find the humor in it all & buckle up for the ride while keeping our strong faith that everything happens for a reason. (Pictured: rendering of a dining area in the new location.)

Our goals at hand have shifted from "just" navigating through this hardship, to now include securing this new home for Square Scullery and preparing to dive straight into a pretty heavy renovation & build. Lightly put, we are experiencing *all* emotions. We go from feeling scared & despaired to excited & relieved at the drop of a dime right now. It's been an interesting couple of weeks, to say the least.

As long as things continue moving forward in a positive light, Square Scullery as you all know it, will be relocating into a new space which suits all of our needs substantially better while still allowing room for growth. We aren't going to share location details just yet, but we can say that it is still in Akron, and in an area in which we can immerse ourselves within the community. Despite current happenings, this is really exciting, and we can't wait to be able to share more information with you about it! Ideally, the plan for our current location (once repaired) will stay the course of transitioning into a Noodle & Bao Bar, as recently announced right before the pipe burst.

Due to the significant delays with insurance, we need help not only keeping our heads above water (no pun intended) but also putting ourselves into the best position to make a move. Restaurant builds by nature are huge undertakings, mentally, physically and of course financially. Although we are incredibly fortunate enough that this specific space already has a commercial kitchen installed, we still estimate the build to cost roughly $150,000.00 from start to grand opening. Timing-wise, it's a lot to pull together under the current circumstances, but we are bound and determined to start our much-anticipated new chapter.

You have all showered us with nothing but love and support over the years, but especially right now, when we've needed it the most. Over the past couple of weeks your kind words have helped pull us through some dark days, we just don't have words for how much that truly means to us. So many amazing humans have reached out to ask how they can help, how they can best support us through this, and despite our stubborn nature & delay in setting this up, ultimately what we need the most right now is a financial safety net so we can confidently move forward. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

All of the love,

Matt, Heather & Square Fam