There is expansive clay under Banner Hall.
This clay has been pushing up on our foundation, floors and walls for a number of years.
You have seen the crack in the north dining room… many thought it was “character”.
Nope… it is the damaging effects of “Yazoo clay”.
In order to avoid permanent and irreversible damage, we must excavate under our restaurant and throughout Banner Hall.
On Sunday night, after we close at 3pm, a construction wall will be erected in our North dining room and the process will begin…
Behind this construction wall, workers will tunnel under our building and remove clay using shovels and 5 gallon buckets. Hard work to say the least! The work estimate is 100 days to remove the dirt and repair the damage.
Unfortunately, our guest bathrooms are a part of the construction zone. They will be “locked up” behind this wall!
We have tried to provide the best possible solution by installing a high-end trailer rest room facility located on the parking lot outside our front door. Fully functional with lighting, air conditioning, commodes, sinks and more, these facilities are our best effort at making this time comfortable for you.
Change in service style
The installation of the construction wall will take away our express take-out counter as well as sealing up our walkway from the kitchen pickup area to the dining room.
In response to these challenges, we are going to rework our front counter line and will change our service style from one of counter service, to full service.
Yes, we still have two cash registers for morning pastry orders, grab & go morning coffee, retail bread transactions, and all take out orders. But going forward, when you choose to dine in with us, we will take care of you and all your needs… at the table not the counter!
Just find a table and sit down
A member of our service staff will be right with you to take your order! Drinks, food, the works! Our leadership team will be in the dining room helping ensure a smooth process… be on the lookout for Michael Thomas, Deidra Ellis, Nina Jenkins, Dani Mitchell, and Tracy Bacon … we will be there for you!
In order to facilitate this changeover, we will be closed for ONE day… Monday, March 2nd.
We need one day to reorganize everything, move all the cabinetry and tables around, rework our cash registers and train our staff.
Ok, that’s now… but what about the future?
What about after the foundation is repaired?
Then what!?!??
We are going to make lemonade out of the lemons we face with this foundation problem.
Many of our customers may remember that our bakery was located right in our restaurant when we first opened 10 years ago. Space problems led us to move the bakery to the Cabot Lodge Millsaps after our first year of operation. We have been baking at the Cabot Lodge since then, trucking our products over in bulk each night.
When the dust settles and the contractors are gone, we will be left with a better, remodeled Broad Street which includes new spaces in our kitchen so that we may BRING THE BAKERY BACK… back to Banner Hall!!!
What this means to YOU is this:
Fresher products & more variety. Everything will be baked freshly on site as needed, in small batches.
Better desserts and pastries. Because of traveling issues, we have not been able to do upscale desserts and pastries like napoleons, fruit tarts, layered desserts, Viennese pastry and the like. Once our pastry chefs are back “home” the sky will be the limit for confections!
Better smells! Get ready to enjoy that wonderful smell of baking bread each day, all day!
So, please…. stick with us.
Please consider granting us a few indulgences as we juggle all of these challenges.
We start Sunday, March 1st.
We should complete by late June.
Hang on… Be patient.
Laugh about the porta potties…
But please, keep coming.
YOU are the reason we do what we do each day… without you, we are without purpose.
Thank you for ten years of patronage… we look forward to giving you a whole set of new reasons to dine with us for the next 10 years…
Jeff Good, Dan Blumenthal and the entire Broad Street Family
