It’s been almost three months since a pipe burst closed Cooper’s Hill Public House in Peterborough, but owner Cassandra Sullivan anticipates being able to reopen soon, potentially as soon as mid-December.
A second story hot water heater failure caused extensive damage to all three businesses sharing 6 School Street in the wee hours of Aug. 31. The Peterborough Community Theatre and Peterborough CoWork also required repairs.
When the restaurant’s anticipated reopening in October came and went, rumors started circulating that Cooper’s Hill was closed for good, Sullivan said. The reports of the restaurant’s demise are greatly exaggerated, however.
“We’re still here,” she said, and working hard to reopen. “The renovations we had to do were a lot more than expected,” she said. That, and negotiating with contractors’ already-packed schedules means there’s still work waiting to be done.
“We are pretty close to being able to get equipment back into the kitchen,” Sullivan said, after the water went through the ceiling in the kitchen, dousing all the electrical work. It took two whole weeks for Servpro just to dry out and remove the initial mess throughout the restaurant, she said. So far, the floors and bar have been repaired and refinished and the walls are back up, and the next steps are to finish repairs to the bathrooms and the service station and paint. “The contractors we work with have been amazing at squeezing us in,” she said. Although it’s hard to hazard a reopening date at this point, Sullivan is hopeful to reopen by mid-December. Dedicated patrons can watch for a limited run of Cooper’s Hill tee shirts to arrive soon, she said. “We’re not closed for good, this is not the end,” she said. “Keep us in mind.”
The restaurant reopened for indoor dining in mid-July after closing due to emergency orders from the state in March. The restaurant had 24 employees before the pandemic and had been operating with nine mostly full-timers at the time of the water damage.