By MELISSA MEEHAN
TEN weeks after a large tree flattened parts of the Micawber Tavern, its owners and staff are busily preparing to re-open on Friday.
After a week of seriously bad weather, a large tree flattened the office, storeroom, dry cellar and branches fell into the main dining area of the popular Belgrave restaurant in the early hours of Saturday 2 August.
At the time, owner Kristina Beatty said it was a freak chance of luck that she had sent staff home early on Friday night, otherwise the result could have been more devastating.
This week, Ms Beatty said it was a huge relief to be able to re-open and provide the community with a place to go and be entertained.
“We’ve had a lot of support from the community saying that they can’t wait for us to re-open,” she said.
“So we’re looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.”
Damage to the building also meant that Ms Beatty and her family had the chance to freshen up the place while waiting for repairs to take place.
“We couldn’t get in here for a while,” she said.
“But when we could it was all hands on deck, we were able to offer our casuals some work to help us with the clean-up.”
This not the first time the Micawber Tavern has been devastated by bad weather.
Years ago after another week of heavy rain, floodwaters inundated the bottom level, forcing Ms Beatty, her family and friends to close for a week while they cleaned up the mess.
