Press Democrat: County’s commercial sector struggles with sluggish fire recovery

From the PD: “Along with the commercial property owners, entrepreneurs who leased space and lost businesses in the fires have found the recovery tasks formidable.

After the destruction of the popular Sweet T’s restaurant in a small Fountaingrove shopping center, owners Ann and Dennis Tussey began exploring what it would take to get back into business. The first challenge was landing a new location.

“We looked at a number of places in Santa Rosa and couldn’t find anything,” Dennis Tussey said.

The burned restaurant had lacked adequate insurance, he said, so to rebuild the couple sought a low-interest loan through the U.S. Small Business Administration. That loan was approved less than two weeks ago.

Work is well underway for a new Sweet T’s with indoor and patio dining in a Safeway shopping center along Brooks Road in Windsor. The restaurant again will feature Texas-style beef brisket and Memphis-style ribs prepared on an outdoor smoker, as well as meats and seafood cooked inside on a wood-fired grill.

But Sweet T’s won’t reopen until possibly late November, not “summer 2018” as the sign hanging above the front door proclaimed earlier this month.

“We were a little optimistic,” said Ann Tussey, adding “maybe more than a little.”