By Polly Lynn
updated
Wed, Jan 25, 2012 03:07 PM
Andrew Geller and his wife Francia bought Blanche and Bills on
Andrew's birthday - Aug. 28, 2009. Two years later, on that same
day, it was nearly washed away by Tropical Storm Irene.
"Kind of weird cosmically, if you believe any of that kind of
stuff... It's very weird how things go away and then come back and
re-materialize," said Geller, referring to the fact that they had
also lost their house in San Diego, Ca. in 2003 due to
wildfires.
The setback from the flood was substantial, but the Gellers
persevered, fueled by community support, and on Dec. 29 they
official reopened, 61 days after the storm. It's a life they
are glad to have back.
"We have our house, we have the restaurant, and it's a
shoe-optional commute to work. I love it... this was part of our
retirement, you know, live in the woods, slow down, fresh water and
foods. That's why we're here," Geller said.
Geller has worked in the restaurant business for 27 years, cooking
at Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons and other top hotels. "I know nothing
but food," he said. "But I got burned out of working the hotels,
seven days a week, 12 hour days... I had no family, we tried to
have kids earlier, but I was such a stress case," he explained,
adding that some weekends he would have to cook for six
weddings.
Blanche and Bills, a small pancake house on Route 4, is a very
different experience for Geller.
"The way food is done here is not mass production, it's just me
back there… I do all the cooking even when it's packed, but I've
cooked for thousands of people, so I've gotten really fast," he
says.
"We have a slogan here: 'memories, humor and fun,'" said Geller.
"When we come in here we laugh, it's not a stiff environment. I
heard stories about how Bill used to come out and say: 'Who's got
that extra sausage?' and hold it up with his tongs! He was just
hollering at people, but they were his friends, and it was just fun
stuff."
THE FLOOD
Sunday morning, the day the flooding began, Andrew, his family and
staff were all in the restaurant preparing for breakfast. At 9 a.m.
it started to rain really hard, so they decided to stop serving. "I
couldn't even see the road," Geller said, pointing to Route 4 about
20 feet away. "It was thunderous coming out of the sky."
At 10 a.m., when he saw water rushing off the mountainside, the
Gellers started chucking luggage in the car. "We were prepared
because we lost everything in California fires, so we had our birth
certificates and all other important documents and clothing already
packed to go," he explained.
"Then I heard a loud noise, it sounded just like a train but I
was like 'there ain't no trains around here'… Then I saw it, just
to the right of our property line. A landslide came and washed the
road away. Traffic stopped on both sides because it was impassible
until the water had pushed all the boulders it had put onto the
highway off… then another landslide came on the left, so we were
about to be trapped."
The Gellers headed left and made it across the first landslide and
then another landslide came down near the Skyeship. "We had to stop
and wait for the boulders to go across and stop rolling. We were
like 'Do we go? Do we go?' The truck ahead of us went so we did
too. Little landslides where going all across Route 4 up to
Hemingways," he said.
The Gellers were headed to Pittsfield where a friend had arranged a
place for them to stay. They were able to cross the Gifford Bridge
on Route 100 just before it washed out. "When I crossed it I could
still see a yellow line so I knew it was still there and just
went," Andrew Geller said. But their friend, who was five minutes
behind, found it washed away. "I can't believe we drove on that!"
he said.
A few days later, when the Gifford Bridge was fixed, they were able
to drive back to their building, which was in pretty bad shape but
still standing. They immediately went to work making repairs.
REBUILDING
"It felt like Vermont was holding out her open arms, especially
compared to our experience in California after the fires," Geller
said. "We were very fortunate, we did have flood insurance… without
it we probably wouldn't be here today; it just took so much
cash."
In addition to the loans and grants they received, it was the
community support and generosity that helped the Gellers work so
hard to reopen, he said. "The love and support was overwhelming, it
really drove us to keep going."
One neighbor drove seven miles in his front loader to reach the
restaurant and restore their driveway. Many others volunteered to
help tear out the water-soaked boards and others spent weeks
offering help in fixing everything from the baseboards to new
furnishings.
"We had to gut the building. Everything you see is new, except for
the ceiling… we were very fortunate, a lot of people volunteered,"
he said.
If you walk into the restaurant today, you will see newly painted
bare walls. "We are in our infancy now; naked, so to speak," Geller
said. But the couple has plans to make a Blanche and Bill history
wall with 1970s pictures, flood pictures, local photography and
pictures of the famed pancake eating contests, which is a favorite
for kids and adults to admire.
"Kids go 'no way, he ate 18 pancakes?' and I say 'yeah, and the
last one was chocolate chip!'" said Geller, laughing. He will also
commission a local artist to paint a mural in the entryway
illustrating Blanche and Bills' many specials.
IN REFLECTION
"The flood has done a lot of things for us. It bonded and reunited
us as a family and it has bonded and reunited part of the
community… It was great to see the response and how the community
really wants us-not needs another food outlet, but wants us back,"
he said.
The flood, as traumatic as it was, "brought us the awareness to
say, 'you know, what we have is enough and it will be enough. What
we have to give is enough.'"
As Geller reflected on the months
since the flood his tone is genuinely grateful.
"We sort of got thrust into life here buying the restaurant, then
having the baby, then running the business and the daily grinds of
that," he said. "Then the flood happened. Without the restaurant
and the community support it would have been a lot more
challenging.... It really took the flood to make us stop as a
family and truly understand the strength of the community around
us. We are so lucky."
Tagged:
Blanche and Bills, Andrew Geller
