Killer Flood Becomes Golden Opportunity

As some of you already know my husband, Leo Romero's restaurant, Casa Romero, suffered severe water damage over the holidays and we were forced to completely rebuild the whole place. Below is a brief illustrated story of how that all happened.

On Christmas day Leo and I were returning from Trinity Church, Copley Square at 12:30 pm and decided to stop by the Casa Romero to pick up some things. When we entered the restaurant there was a flood of hundreds of gallons of water pouring from all over the ceiling of the entry way and front dining room. The floor was covered with two inches of water and the sub basement was 8 inches deep in water with more water pouring down, then the ceiling fell!

The floors above the Casa Romero had been the location of the French restaurant, L'Espalier. They had moved out of that location at the beginning of September to their new place at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. During the cold weather before Christmas the water pipes broke in the old L'Espalier kitchen on the second floor above us.  We were closed on Christmas Eve. So some time between mid day on the 24 and mid day on the 25th the pipes burst and had been flooding the building for hours.

The entire entry way, front dinning room, bath rooms and bar, were destroyed. The first step to recover was demolition of the ceiling and affected wet areas and drying out of the whole place. We then hired Coelho Contractors to rebuild our beloved restaurant and they worked tirelessly for 8, none-stop, weeks creating a brand new space that is better than ever. coelhocontracting@comcast.net

Photo by Anita Klaussen

Here I am at the new entrance to the Casa Romero with my photo that Leo calls “The Best of Mexico.” These colorful musicians and dancers perform a traditional folk dance called, “The Dance of the Old Men.” I was lucky enough to catch the men and boys of the troop in a moment of relaxation after their performance at Plaza Vasco de Quiroga in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, 2007

Carlos and Hernan shake up a batch of “Perfect Margaritas” to celebrate the opening of Antojitos Tequila Bar at Casa Romero

Here is how the front dining room of Casa Romero was for 37 years before the flood washed us down the drain.

Here is the Casa Romero front dining room after the clean-up and dehumidifier company had done initial removal of the ceiling and a weeks worth of drying out. The old floor boards had swollen and warped raising each board about 3 to 6 inches on the seam.

The crew of Coelho Contraction Inc. begins to tear up the floor. The gray dots looking like water drops on my camera lens are in fact the dust particles in the air, hence the open back door for necessary ventilation even though you can see the January snow in the alley beyond.

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After the first day the floor and old interior walls were removed and a pile of refuse is piled by the back door awaiting transportation to the dump. Uggh, what a mess!

After the old floor joists were removed, the space beneath the floor, only about a 3 foot crawl space with an earthen floor, was back filled with a concrete slab. The periphery of the space had new 12 inch, steel reinforced, concrete footing constructed. Into this new footing the new floor joists were embedded.

New floor joists (L V Ls, laminated veneer lumber)  were installed every 12 inches, a little bit of over kill to make the restaurant solid as a rock.

So much was happening at once in order to make our deadline of February 14^th reopening. Here you can see the man with the shovel is working on the cement slab while the other men are installing the many floor joists.

Next the sub floor was reinstalled. The crew worked long hours from 7 or 8 in the morning until 7 or 8 in the evening 6 to 7 days a week, racing to finish before St. Valentines day. For the whole last two weeks of the project two crews worked far into the night. We finished the project in 7 weeks with details taking two more weeks after we opened.  

Constructing the new bar, entry hall, dishwashing / bussing station for bar glasses, and the new banquettes in the Antojitos Lounge, etc. was an act of sheer will. We had very little in the way of architectural construction drawings. What we did have were design plans and a series of three-dimensional views drawn by Hernan Marrero who is our head bar tender at night and a talented architectural designer at Dewberry, Boston in the day.  

This is the front dining room looking at the Tequila Bar wearing a new coat of sheet rock. It actually began to look like a real restaurant at this point. During all this time of construction I was wrestling with the insurance company and I must say, after my little Bull Dog badgering (is that a mixed metaphor or what?) they did come through with the dough. Our real savior was our Insurance Agent, Beth Berardi at Ivy West Insurance Agency  beth@bethberardi.com  If you need  insurance, do your self a favor and email her.

We were able to save many hundreds of the original Talavera tiles that covered the walls of the old entryway. Out loyal staff came into work during the construction and patiently scrapped the back of these hand made tiles so we were able to reuse them as wainscoting as you see here. Leo had installed these same tiles 37 years ago when he first created Casa Romero.

Everybody was keep busy as bees. You can see the corner of the bar already covered with new tile from Mexico. The tiles were flown to us by a company in Texas, just in the nick of time.

“Ay caramba!” the bar is tiled. Carla Coelho stands at the corner of the bar coordinating the complex paints shades used in the Faux Finish paint treatments. coelhocontracting@comcast.net  , thank you Carla!

Here is one of the wide boards of heart pine milled in New Hampshire being put in place. Although I have not shown you, the entire floor systems of all three dining rooms at Casa Romero were replaced including the sub floors, joists, etc. just like the front room. The joint was totally torn up! Uggh and a half, but now it all looks world class.

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The General Manager of Casa Romero, Rogerio Padillia and Senor José Leopoldo Romero Jr. The Chief Proprietor of Casa Romero. A K A  Rogerio and Leo, the heroes of our little world.

You can see the new golden faux finish paint treatment in the bar area that Carla and her talented crew accomplished. There are four different color areas incorporated in the new entry, Antojitos Tequila Bar and lounge. Each color area, including the ceilings, has three colors overlaid. The vibrancy of these colors in combination with the Mexican tiles and Leo’s Mexican folk art collection is unique and lovely.

This is a view of the entry way using the “Peace Dove” tiles and a new tile picture that Rogerio found and incorporated in the design. One of the little doves is up-side-down. This is our “Pajaro Borracho” or drunken bird. If you find the tiny tibbler Leo or I will buy you a drink. “Yes, madam, that was, one drink.” No sir, I did not mean a pitcher of Margaritas.”

This mysterious picture shows one of the corners of the Antojitos Lounge banquette being built. I have included it because it shows the color of that area in all its vibrancy. This is my favorite color area.

And here are the boys again, they will shake up the sauce for you including a staggering variety of Mexican delights and if you haven’t tried the Romerita, give it a go. I’ve been known to down a bunch in my time but watch out cuz these little darlings pack a powerful punch