• FLOODS of '08 VIDEO
The Old Chicago restaurant on the Coralville Strip has come a long way since the floods of ’08. For eleven days, Old Chicago sat in more than six feet of water. The restaurant lost everything and had to be gutted. Now they’re back and open for business. CBS2’s Robert Price shows us how they got to this point.
It’s 11am opening day, and loyal customers of Old Chicago are already here pouring into their favorite restaurant…back for the first time since the flood.
"I got a lout of friends here...know a lot of people that did work here...I hope they come back...I have a good time here,” said regular customer David Fodge.
"Just great when you open up the door and there they are...they were lining up out front, which I thought was pretty cool," said owner Joe McLaughlin.
The turnout thrilled owner Joe McLaughlin.
"You know you hope when you reopen that they're going to come back, because you know three and a half months is a long time.”
"The beer...I'm here for the beer mostly,” said another customer.
It’s not just the customers who are loyal. It’s also the staff. Before the flood, Old Chicago had around 70 employees. Now, three and a half months later, nearly all of them are back.
"If you're used to being a server or a cook, slogging through 9 inches of stinky old mud is maybe not in your job description," said McLaughlin.
Old Chicago suffered more than a million dollars in damage.
"We were back down to the studs...we had nothing."
But they made it their goal to be back open by October.
"For a while there it didn't look too good, but I guess they ramped it up and got it going," said one loyal customer.
"It's like trying to unscramble eggs...making the mess wasn't hard...getting it undone, that was tough," said McLaughlin.
But thanks to a dedicated staff, and a healthy amount of insurance, Old Chicago is as good as new.
Old Chicago Reopens After Flood
