The Railroad Street Steakhouse in Roseboro has been undergoing remodeling since May. After a few setbacks that caused the restaurant to push back its deadline of reopening in the summer, there’s renewed optimism that if things go to plan, the restaurant could possibly reopen as early as March.
“We don’t have a concrete date, but that’s what I’m hoping for, because obviously we’re going into the new year,” General Manager Melissa McNally said. “For the most part, most of the construction is going forward. We expanded the kitchen out way beyond what it used to be and just the general area that we’re going to be providing for people to have entertainment. It went from a small little backyard, kind of seating area, to this whole big outdoor seating area to the bigger kitchen.”
Zachary and Charles Jordan acquired ownership of the Roseboro restaurant from Richard Barefoot and his wife Laura in April. Shortly afterward, the decision was made to close the restaurant temporarily so that the planned remodeling could take place.
“I think March is a pretty good time frame,” Zachary Jordan said. “Given that everything works out like it’s supposed to. That gives us the best time frame, and it still gives us time to get everything set up. We got the jumbo-tron we still gotta expand on, we gotta put all of our kitchen equipment in there, we’ve already started framing out all of the walls and the rooms that are going to be in there. We’ve had to push back this deadline a couple of different times, because the inspection and all the different permits that we’ve had to pull. But we have all of those in a row now, so now we’re just waiting on the work to be finalized, get all the kitchen equipment in there, get the bathrooms finished up, get the jumbo-tron set up.”
McNally highlighted a few reasons why the restaurant had to be temporarily closed in May.
“We shut everything down and we went through looking at the equipment that was there and it was just outdated,” she explained. “Come to find out, we found some gas leaks and just equipment not being able to handle the capacity that we were looking for.”
In addition, she said, the entire building had to be rewired to bring it up to code. “These buildings here in this town are older and it just needed to be upgraded, especially to handle the new equipment that we plan on putting in there,” she shared. “So we wanted to make sure that breakers aren’t flipping.”
Both McNally and Zachary emphasized that a renovation like this one requires time.
McNally explained that restaurants have to have a certain type of lighting, and all that needs to be up to code. “The health department will be involved making sure we’re up to code on that, our equipment has to be up to code. There’s a lot more behind it than a lot of people actually know when it comes to restaurants. You can’t go out and buy just any equipment, you have to buy certified equipment that is by code, it has to be able to heat to a certain degree, it has to be able to do certain things for whatever you’re trying to do.”
Zachary Jordan added, “Perfection takes time. What we’re doing is, we’re trying to make this up to our own standards. Me and my father (Charles), everything that we do is not half-ass. Nothing that we’re involved in is something that we’re letting just go by. We’re not just doing this for our own benefit, we’re doing this for the community’s benefit, we’re trying to help the community as we grow as well.”
Both Jordan and McNally stated that it’s important to them that the community feel invested in the project and support the restaurant when it reopens.
“I want the community to give us a chance, that’s the reality,” Jordan said. “People have went online and had a lot of things to say about the slowness of our development, the time frame of which we’ve done all this. They’ve also criticized who we are as people but the reality is, they don’t know us. They don’t know who this 26-year-old kid is, they don’t know what’s on my heart and that I’m trying to build something for my son. Me and my father are building something that’s bigger than us in this small community. If we didn’t believe in Roseboro, we wouldn’t be investing as much money as we are into Roseboro. We’re trying to build something that outlives all of us, something nice. I just want them to give us a chance. Once they see what this is like, they can give us their honest criticism then.”
McNally urged area residents to have patience. “We are moving forward, and we’re not veering off from not opening. We are going to have this restaurant open and once it’s open, we look forward to serving everybody that wants to come and try this somewhat of the same hometown meals that they were getting with a little twist. From the feedback that I’m getting, people are still excited about it, they’re ready for it. But we just want to make sure that we have our ducks in a row and that we can give everybody that good meal with no issues.”
Morgan Bonner, director of operations for Railroad Street Steakhouse, said that while she didn’t work at the restaurant when it was previously open, she’s been heavily involved during the renovation period.
“There’s been a bunch of positives, and then there’s been of course, some negative things,” she said. “It sometimes has been a little overwhelming but you’ve just got to look at what’s going to be in the future instead of right now. In the future, you’re going to have this awesome restaurant where more people come in for the atmosphere, but right now with everything’s closed and everybody’s (saying) ‘we want it open, open now, why aren’t you open, why hasn’t this open however many months ago, open, open, open,’ and that’s what we’re trying to be.”
Bonner echoed the same sentiments as McNally and Jordan, regarding the time it has taken to get the renovations completed.
“Honestly, it takes time,” she said. “Anybody that thinks a restaurant is going to open up two weeks after it closed down for a whole remodel, that’s just kind of crazy. I would say we’re not trying to rush it, because if you rush it and it fails, you’re going to look stupid, but if you take your time to make it into what you want it to be, it can be amazing. We hope that the time that we have used to try to build this place up and get everything correct, that we exceed everybody’s expectations.”