After nearly shutting down permanently earlier this year, the British Bobby Restaurant owners do not plan on going anywhere soon.
The restaurant cut back on a few expenses and negotiated a new five year lease at a better rate, according to John St. John, one of the owners.
His son and son’s wife decided to take on the restaurant, with St. John, who is semi-retired, still there to give advice and help out.
“We’re just surviving to be honest, we’re not as busy as we could be since the masks were made mandatory, but everyone is in the same boat,” he said.
St. John said he was persuaded to remain open after an outpouring of support from customers, including a GoFundMe that raised $1,000.
“I had customers in tears — literally crying,” said St. John, who now has more time to add to the restaurant’s movie prop collection, including a guillotine used in an episode of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
“It makes it more memorable, if you can have a bit of an adventure or see things you’ve never seen before. And that’s what I’ve always wanted the British Bobby to be,” said St. John, adding he is expecting more props from the Vikings series to arrive soon.
He said when the landlord visited the restaurant for the first time, they decided not to raise the rent as planned.
“He’d never been in and of course the medieval restaurant just blew him away and he said, ‘we cannot close this down,’” said St. John.
