ELYRIA, Ohio — Nine months and nineteen days after a car crashed into its kitchen, Expresso Bakery on 4th Street in Elyria reopened to a crowd that excitedly waited outside and wrapped around the store.
"We’re back now so we’re ready to go," owner Keith Black explained. "Everything we do, we make from scratch. I’ve worked 14-15 hours straight and I have a little bit of energy but I’m pretty exhausted right now."
By 12 p.m., the store had sold out of everything else, two hours before they were scheduled to close.
In February, a car collided with the building and crashed into the back of the kitchen, forcing the store to close much longer than Black would have imagined.
"A car that hit us going 60 mph kind of knocked my legs out from underneath me," he recalled. "The struggle was we were told four to six months [to reopen], and then it was seven months, eight months and then nine months."
But while absence makes the heart grow fonder, it also makes the eyes grow wider.
Take Elyria High School principal Jodie Johnson: She was willing to wait outside in the dark to load up on some of the bakery’s specialty donuts for her and her staff.
Even the mayor stopped by, a sweet show of support for a store selling more than just sugar.
"I’ve been asking a lot and going on social media a lot to see when are we opening," Johnson smiled. "We haven’t had a bakery in a long time. When Expresso opened up a few years (ago), we loved on them and showed our support then. When the accident happened, it was kind of devastating to our community, so we want to come out and show our support."
A bakery rebuilt…now with a cement monument of sorts…that marks where that car once came through and to prevent another instance in the future.
"We tried to stop anything from happening again," Black explained. "I don’t know if it will completely stop it, but it might slow it down."
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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