After Tucker's fire: What goes around, comes around

Jean-Francois Flechet of Taste of Belgium helped them set up to sell gift cards. They sold T-shirts. That kept their personal bills paid, but not much was happening in getting the restaurant going again.But the help began right away. Customer Chris Heckman starting a GoFundMe campaign and raised $17,000. He’s just a casual customer, but, he said, “I just thought you can’t lose a place with that kind of soul.”

Until Kathleen Norris decided to take steps. “Tucker’s had to exist,” she said. Her firm, Urban Fast Forward, is involved in revitalization projects, and she knows how to get people on board. “My career’s been in the good deeds business. I’m accustomed to asking people, ” she said. She assembled the Tucker’s Team with Joe, Carla, friends, people who could help them.

“Everything was guided by Joe and Carla," said Norris. ”We asked them, in a perfect world, what would you need?”

The person who did the most for the project was a friend sent to the first meeting by Joe. Norris had no idea who he was but politely welcomed him to the table.

“It turned out Jim McMahon was the salvation of the project,” said Norris. He’s the owner of Appletree Designs, which does work for retail stores all around the world, and is friends with the Tuckers through his kids.

But in putting it back together, they were clever in using what was already there. “It was a very particular kind of challenge,” said Stoll. “It was a big concern to make sure it felt like it’s still Tucker’s, but also make it nicer, so all this work seemed worth it.”Of course, the job turned out to be bigger than it looked at first. Art Reckman of Model Group warned them that in old OTR buildings, it’s best to take everything to the studs. That’s what eventually happened.

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This is an excerpt from the Cincinnati Enquirer, read the rest here.