Sarah and Bryan Smink awoke April 9, 2020, at 4 a.m. to gut-wrenching news. Their restaurant, Blu-Willy’s, was ablaze and burning fast. By the time the two arrived on the scene, their restaurant had been razed.
“Honestly, we went through every emotion you can think of,” Sarah says. “Denial while driving there, heartbreaking when we saw it and frustrated not knowing what happened.”
Investigators eventually determined a lightning strike started the fire at Blu-Willy’s. Tragically, that was not the first devastating event to befall Sarah and Bryan’s dream business in 2020. A heavy spring rain in early March flooded the restaurant and before they had a chance to reopen, COVID-19 forced closures and added additional safety requirements.
“I don’t think we’re ever surprised about anything that happens in our life anymore,” Bryan says. “We’re the calmest people when it comes to obstacles that come into our lives. This was an eye opener.”
Rebuilding
Even standing amid the rubble of Blu-Willy’s kitchen, Sarah and Bryan say there was never a doubt in their minds that they would get back to work.
“That day (of the fire) we were ready to get everybody out and start cleaning,” Sarah says. “It took a while to get everything investigated, but the actual rebuild began around June 2020.”
The restoration included conducting a complete inventory of everything that was lost, removing the destroyed equipment and salvaging what they could. Among the items lost in the wreckage were family photos, memorabilia and signage Sarah and Bryan had collected over the years.
The destruction posed the opportunity to rebuild better, and Sarah and Bryan renovated the building to create more space and better flow. They also added a mural featuring the restaurant’s namesakes: their former family dog, Blu, and Bryan’s father, William.
“We really wanted to go back to the same look,” Sarah says. “We tried to just keep everything where it was.”
They were able to restore Blu-Willy’s original wooden hand-carved bar, one of the most-loved features of the restaurant.
After everything was done, Blu-Willy’s reopened Nov. 21, beginning slowly with takeout and then progressing back to usual hours.
Grove City Lends a Hand
Blu-Willy’s originally opened Sept. 21, 2019, and Sarah and Bryan felt they were relatively new to the area when the fire happened. But the Grove City community immediately came to their aid, calling, texting, sending food and gifts, and offering lots of help.
“They’ve been amazing,” Sarah says. “Everyone was so supportive.”
Bryan says that the community response made reopening easy. Many Grove City businesses volunteered to fix the air and heating for free and tons of electricians offered their services. Everyone seemed to want to help get Blu-Willy’s back up and running.
“You don’t feel that much love from people unless you’ve given it to them before,” Bryan says. “For people just to take to us that quickly was just amazing. It tells you a lot about Grove City, I’ll tell you that."
The help and community support were crucial for Sarah and Bryan during a time that felt bleak.
“It was hard and there were times we were down,” Sarah says. “To go from working every day to not having anything. … It’s a different kind of grief when you lose something that you put so much work into. One day it was there and then, with no warning, it’s gone.”
Willy
William Smink was the biggest supporter of his son, Bryan. Although he passed away from cancer about a year before Blu-Willy’s opened, Sarah says that if he was here today, he’d be in the restaurant by their side working every day.
“He was the biggest fan of us,” she says. “Anything we wanted to do; he was there to support us.”
“He loved hamburgers – absolutely loved them, but he liked them plain,” Bryan adds, laughing. “I don’t think he would order one of our specialized burgers, he just liked a good old-fashioned hamburger.” Bryan is the head cook and the heart and soul behind the menu. He says there’s a lot of collaboration and creativity when it comes to creating weekly burger specials.
“We’ve had some really weird stuff going here that sold really well,” Bryan says. “It’s real different. I’m not sure Grove City was ready for it, but they’re taking to it real well.”
A Blu-Willy’s staple is garlic cottage cheese, something you don’t often see. The burgers are always unique – for example, Bryan says he once made a burger that had a mixture of blue cheese dressing, garlic wing sauce and a hot, spicy A.1. Sauce.
As for Sarah and Bryan’s favorite item on the menu, they agree that they’ll eat a Blu-Willy burger any day of the week. Plus, Sarah can’t get enough of the hand-cut fries.
Looking Ahead
2021 has so far proven to be a better, less problematic year for Blu-Willy’s.
“I think (the fire) changed us a lot,” Sarah says. “We don’t take things for granted.”
Bryan has one very simple goal for the year.
“To serve everybody to our fullest potential,” he says. “We just want to make everybody happy.”
Mallory Arnold is an editor. Feedback welcome at marnold@cityscenemediagroup.com.
