A State College area restaurant that was damaged when a driver crashed a car into the building this week is ready to reopen.
Bonfire Old Fashioned BBQ, 2609 E. College Ave. in College Township, has been cleared by code officials to resume full service and will reopen on Thursday, according to a post on the restaurant’s Facebook.
Co-owner Glenn Kunig arrived at the restaurant at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning to discover a heavily damaged car broke through the brick and stone wall, leaving extensive debris inside the dining room.
Security footage from a nearby business showed the car crashing into the building at around 2 a.m., co-owner Josh Kunig said.
The driver was not on the scene when the crash was discovered, but was later located by police and found to be uninjured. State College police Lt. Ted Hubler said a preliminary investigation has found no indication that drugs or alcohol played a factor when the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the building “at a high rate of speed.”
An investigation is ongoing, and no charges have been filed as of Wednesday afternoon.
While the restaurant continued fulfilling catering orders, it temporary halted dine-in and takeout service on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Bonfire’s owners credited the property’s landlords for acting quickly to make repairs to the building. Photos on the restaurant’s Facebook page also showed the dining room in good condition with the debris removed as a crew worked on the structural repair.
“We can not thank the Housers and crew enough for the amazing turn around on getting this all patched up,” Bonfire’s owners wrote. “We have been approved to resume full service but we are going to stay closed [Wednesday] to make sure the restaurant is clean and sanitized for everyone! We are going to reopen Thursday with normal business hours. We cant wait to see you all then.”
