Common Man founder rebuilt after ’00 arson
Common Man founder
Ray has been through it before. In 2013, the Common Man in
"The fire damage was relatively irrelevant. It was the subsequent trying to completely chase down the fire through all of the roof," Ray said. "The water damage was huge, all the way through three floors. It wasn't a tragedy luckily, but it did take five weeks to do the whole thing."
That's just a blip compared to the stretch Ray faced in 2000 when the Common Man in
The
The fire had occurred at
"Now we were in a rough situation. We had lots of help for the summer. So we shifted them around to all the other restaurants," said Ray, whose company includes nearly 20 restaurants, including two new roadside eateries at the Hooksett Welcome Centers on
Fire gutted the
"We opened eight months later with a completely new building that looked like the old building in every way, which was both the house and the barn. That was pretty exciting," Ray said.
While working on the reconstruction, Ray chose to work with the insurance company, negotiating as needed.
"We had all these guys called private investigators, which come and try to take over the case and fight your battle. We don't have that chemistry makeup," Ray said. "We said 'No, we'll work with the insurance company.' And it was a positive experience. A lot of guys enter into litigation after a fire. That's not the way it's done. You have to make sure you have a good policy, and a good company, and secondly work with them, not against them."
When it was time to reopen, the company hosted a celebration at the rebuilt restaurant as both a thank- you gesture and a way to reconnect with customers.
"We went out of our way in
"It helped to remind people that we were back. And they have an empathy for it. They liked us in the beginning or they wouldn't be our customers. And they came back to see it. I was kind of thrilled. It was a very positive experience."
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