Wednesday, March 03, 2010
'Olde' made new
Less than five months after a devastating fire, Liberty Station restaurant has reopened with a new name and much of the "olde" feel.
Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
Tracy Thomas waits on Marlene Henson (left) and Marge Maupin at the Liberty Station restaurant in Bedford.
Clockwise from left: Mary Richeson, Betty Stinnette, Kara Sensenig and Lloyd Stinnette wait for their tables at Liberty Station.
The restaurant, shown above, could double as a museum. This old clock (left) was half-filled with water after the fire, but it has been restored.
Food writer Lindsey Nair
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The firefighters at Bedford's volunteer station were about to take a lunch break on Sept. 18 when dispatchers alerted them that the Olde Liberty Station restaurant was on fire.
Deputy Chief Zeph Cunningham figured it would be a small grease fire in the kitchen, which they had seen so many times on restaurant calls.
"We said, 'Well, we will go down and take care of this and go to lunch in a few minutes,' " he recalled.
It was eight hours before they'd even think about eating again.
The 105-year-old former train station that houses the restaurant had seen so much in its time. The famed "Bedford Boys" of the Virginia National Guard unit that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 had departed from there in 1941, many never to return. A decade later, President Dwight Eisenhower came through on a campaign trip.
But it was the regular residents of Bedford who had a long-standing relationship, and many fond memories, of the station. Some hopped trains there and rode to Roanoke at Christmas to show their children the big-city window displays. Some sent their sweeties off to war or college. Some worked there and can still remember where their desks were located inside the station.
After the depot was transformed into a restaurant in 1989, it became a community dining hall of sorts -- the kind of place where you can't throw a fork without hitting someone you know, where anniversaries and birthdays and myriad other occasions were celebrated, where business deals went down and a piece of that famous cheesecake could make the whole day brighter.
Olde Liberty Station was also no secret to tourists, especially after the D-Day memorial was built nearby.
Many made a special stop to experience affordably priced dishes such as salt and pepper catfish, baby back ribs, raspberry chicken and an array of salads, sandwiches and other entrees.
Saved by many hands
When Cunningham arrived at the fire scene, it was obvious to him that the flames blazing from the roof would be impossible to extinguish. They would later learn that the fire probably began when a work crew heated wooden beams to strip off some old paint.
Cunningham approached restaurant owner Harry Leist (rhymes with diced).
"You are going to stand here and watch the roof burn off of your restaurant. There's nothing I can do," the deputy chief said he told Leist. "But if you get enough of your employees to work with our firefighters, we will go in there and carry out anything that is not bolted to the floor."
From that point forward, about half of the 77 firefighters who eventually showed up on the scene worked salvage and overhaul while the rest tried to tame the fire.
They grabbed framed photos of past Norfolk and Western Railroad presidents, paintings, antique furniture and other railroad memorabilia, then ran out and passed it off to employees in the parking lot. The entire time, the roof threatened to collapse and the crowd of onlookers -- who came to snap pictures and share a piece of the sorrow with the Leist family -- steadily grew.
In the end, firefighters and employees saved just about every antique in the building, including a gorgeous oak buffet that had to be carried out by nine men. They were unable to save a 1913 Nickelodeon piano, which Cunningham said "was just too damn heavy" and too close to the origin of the fire.
Structurally, all that was left of the main dining room and lounge were stone walls and a concrete slab floor. But the Leist family was determined to bring back the Bedford landmark.
"There never was a question in our minds that we would rebuild," said Marty Leist, Harry's wife. "This is what we do."
On Feb. 8, less than five months after the devastating fire, Liberty Station restaurant reopened with a new name and much of the "olde" feel.
Rebuilding with help
Harry Leist said he was lucky to have a general contractor for the rebuilding process who had worked on the restaurant before. They stayed as loyal to the old, historic look as possible. For example, destroyed windows were remade using wood salvaged from the building.
When I went in for lunch last week, it was clear that customers still were absorbing the changes.
Over a bowl of really good chili, I watched groups wander through the three main rooms of the 7,500-square-foot establishment, looking around and taking pictures. It occurred to me that Liberty Station is a restaurant that could double as a museum.
A huge mural of the Peaks of Otter at sunset was destroyed in the fire, but local artist Dana Burford recreated his painting, this time showing the peaks at sunrise and using colors that complement the palette Marty Leist chose for the remodeling: cream, light green and burgundy.
A huge painting depicting a Norfolk and Western train sustained smoke damage but was not destroyed. That painting, which covers an entire wall in the lounge, was taken down, cleaned and rehung, along with those photos of past railroad presidents.
Most of the antique railroad artifacts that adorned the restaurant before the fire are back again, and they somehow look better in the warmer, more contemporary rooms. A faux train schedule that used to hang on a wall in the main dining room has been replaced by one that reflects the real schedule on June 6, 1944 -- D-Day. The old clock that hung above the schedule was half-filled with water after the fire, but it has been restored.
Said Marty Leist, "I never thought that we'd see the vast majority of these things again."
Harry and Marty's daughter, Heather Williams, who manages and co-owns the restaurant, said customers have reacted positively to the changes. She said many have said, "Wow, everything looks the same, but it's different!"
The eagle-eyed Olde Liberty Station regulars did notice someone missing when the place reopened: the mannequin dressed in a conductor's hat and uniform.
"I get that question more than anything. 'Did the mannequin make it?' " said Harry Leist. "No, he was DOA."
Fortunately, there was no real loss of life in the fire.
A Nationwide Insurance policy covered about $1.5 million in damage to Liberty Station, Williams said. It even covered some of the employees' lost income, but not all.
That's where the community stepped in to help, organizing two benefit concerts to raise money for the jobless employees. Folks also dropped by to donate railroad-related artifacts they thought would help dress up the place, or just came by to express condolences over the loss.
One woman gave Harry Leist a railroad spike, saying she wanted it to be the first nail to go toward rebuilding the place. That spike is now displayed in a shadowbox next to the front doors, along with a sketch of a phoenix rising from the ashes.
"There are so many ways people think of this as their restaurant," Williams said.
Added her mother, "The community has been such a crucial part of this whole project. ... We just really wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them."
