DuluthCommunityNews

In those six years, six different teams have won the World Series, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred and President George W. Bush has nearly finished his second term in office.

Six years is a long time.

That’s why David Heib, Jim Olson, Scott Anderson, Jack Sheare, and Jay Monson were in shock when Uncle Loui’s Café burned down on April 19th.

An electrical short in a fridge caused the fire. Everything was ruined.

The teachers all called and emailed each other to make sure everyone knew.

“We all cried,� said Heib.

“For the first few weeks, we just sulked,� said Anderson.

Eventually, the teachers would find a new meeting place: the Coney Island restaurant on Superior Street.

The employees at Uncle Loui’s, however, weren’t interested in finding a new place.

“From the moment it burned down there was never a thought about not reopening,� said owner Penny Briddell. And so the process began. A good insurance plan allowed all the employees to come together to help bring back what Briddell called “a lot of people’s favorite place�.

“We were even ready to volunteer,� said Heib of his fellow teachers.

Six months later, on Nov. 2, the work was completed, and Uncle Loui’s Café reopened.

“We had to do a lot of advertising to make sure people knew we were going to be open again,� said Briddell, “but mostly people knew just by word of mouth. We even had people walking by every day, peering into the windows.�

As for the five teachers?

“It was like coming home again,� said Olson. “The food was the exact same. The prices were even the exact same.�

“Our waitress still remembered all of our orders,� said Heib. “I didn’t even remember my order�

In fact, the new remodeling was actually improvement for the group.

“They even gave us a window,� said Anderson, pointing to the nearest wall.

After six months, things are finally back to normal at Uncle Loui’s.