The eatery re-opened on June 2, more than 10 months after closing due to a damage from a fire last July.
Short Hills Restaurant and Deli was closed for more than 10 months after a fire on the second floor of the restaurant’s building on July 12 caused damage inside the eatery.
Despite the long-time closure, many of its regular customers never wavered in their support of the restaurant.
“I’m so glad Short Hills is going to be re-built,” Richie Betz said on Short Hills’ Facebook page following the fire last July. “Short Hills is my favorite restaurant of all time and I never wanted to see anything happen to it.”
“Just waiting for opening day, “ Beth Kern wrote on Facebook in January. “We miss eating there.”
“I’ll try my hardest to be there opening day,” Nick Sausley wrote. “Then the next day and maybe even the day after that. I need my Short Hills fix!”
On June 2, the wait was finally over. Short Hills Restaurant and Deli re-opened with a new look and renewed hope from 78-year-old owner Jerry Kaplan.
“We were ready,” Kaplan said about the re-opening. “We had the help. We had the product ready to go.”
This is the second time Short Hills suffered damage from a fire, but Kaplan notes Short Hills never had a fire start inside its restaurant. The 2008 fire started outside the building and spread mostly to the second floor offices. Last year, the fire took place on the second floor of the building, but never spread to the restaurant.
Nearly all of the damage Short Hills suffered from the fire came from water streaming down from the second floor.
“What happened was we got mold because it was sitting in the warm weather for so long,” Kaplan said. “It started rotting. Everything had to come down.”
The restaurant had to be completely gutted and rebuilt from scratch. The long rebuilding process caused the restaurant’s closure for nearly a year.
Despite the closure, Kaplan said the community and his staff continued to show their support. He would continue to read positive encouragement from customers on Facebook and saw customers driving up to the building, even while it was closed.
“They drove by here every day for 10 months,” Kaplan said. “Some people lifted up the yellow tape to try and get into the store. “
One challenge the eatery was faced with was a constantly changing re-opening date. The restaurant announced in the winter it intended to re-open in early spring, but the date got pushed back.
“Our biggest problem was we didn’t know when we would open,” Kaplan said. “It would always change: Cherry Hill with permits, upstairs with permits, getting everything in.”
Kaplan was most concerned about his employees, many of whom vowed to return to work at Short Hills when the restaurant re-opened.
“For my employees, I was worried,” Kaplan said. “They didn’t want to get other jobs and leave.”
Kaplan noted 95 percent of Short Hills’ employees from last July who were asked to return to work opted to come back to the restaurant.
Those employees came back to a re-designed restaurant featuring a new look, new menu and new features such as a pickle bar. One thing Kaplan didn’t change was the food and how it is prepared.
“People come here for the food they love,” he noted.
Kaplan said he was happy to see the restaurant fill with customers during its opening weekend. His daughter, Stacey Reiter, said she was thankful the community not only supported the restaurant during the closure, but also returned to the restaurant in large numbers after it re-opened.
“It was nice to see so many of our customers come back,” Reiter said. “You don’t really know how much somebody appreciates you until you’re gone.”
Short Hills Restaurant and Deli is located at 486 East Evesham Road in Cherry Hill. Visit www.shorthillsdeli.com to see the full menu and for more information.
