COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Nate Schmidt, Schmidty's Burgers co-owner, was eager to get back behind the grill after closing the business for two years.
Schmidty's Burgers burned down in January 2020, along with several other local businesses after a circuit breaker on the roof started the fire in the middle of the night.
Schmidt said the building's businesses were all closed by the time the fire began. When they were notified, the flames had already destroyed most of the building.
"I got like 8 or 9 calls, everyone was just like 'are you okay?'" Schmidt said. "I was like 'yeah, what’s going on?' And they’re like, 'your restaurant.' There were cups in the streets, there was just-, the hoses, the whole place was just ruined."
Then, two months later, the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the nation, shutting down non-essential businesses, which lead the Schmidts to hold off the chance of looking for a new location to restart.
"It was a process," Schmidt said. "Between concrete shortages and staffing shortages, it took about 18 months for us to finally get this place open."
Schmidty's Burgers reopened with a soft launch and then invited the community back on Feb. 3. Schmidt said the reopening of the business was like no time had passed.
"It was like we never closed basically," Schmidt said. "Everyone was just right back in here like we were always open.”
Schmidt said while the situation was unfortunate, it gave him and his wife a chance to rebuild from the ground up, taking ownership in every aspect of the business.
"We got to do it our way," Schmidt said. "The old place, we had to just take over a lease and kind of work with what was there where here, this is all ours, this is everything we did. The old location was great to us. What happened to us sucked, but we love this location.”
Schmidt said the new building also opened new opportunities they didn't have in the original building, like more dining space and the ability to install a pick-up window, which Schmidt called a post-pandemic essential.
Schmidty's Burgers is still working out a few reopening kinks, but Schmidt said they couldn't wait long to get back to work and have the community back into the restaurant.
Schmidty's Burgers is open now at 1524 E. Sherman Ave in Coeur d'Alene.