It was business as usual on Wednesday morning at Camp Washington Chili. This, after a car rammed into the side of the beloved chili parlor in the early hours of the previous Tuesday.
Maria Papakirk said she was able to reopen sooner than she expected thanks to the quick work of her team and a local building inspector. In a Facebook post, she also thanked contractors, the local health department, first responders, Duke Energy and its staff for helping complete repairs, inspections and safety checks on an accelerated timeline.
I stopped by Wednesday to see how Papakirk was doing. Aside from losing a lot of sleep during the past 48 hours, she seemed ready for things to get back to normal.
On Tuesday morning at around 3 a.m., Papakirk received a panicked
call from her nightshift leader saying she needed to rush down to the restaurant. "He said 'there's a car in the restaurant that crashed into it,'" she told me.
When she and her husband, Jim, arrived, there were police officers, the fire department, ambulances and a Cincinnati building inspector. Luckily, she said, no one was hurt. And while the car had slammed into the kitchen area, none of the parlor's equipment, including its almost sacred chili kettles, were damaged. "It was like the perfect spot, if there is such a spot, to have an accident," she said.
Papakirk said a longtime staff member named Charles was able to vacuum-seal about 40 gallons of chili so it wouldn't spoil while the restaurant was closed.
Meanwhile, a customer named Hal, who owns a contracting business, immediately got to work on repairs. "He's a regular, so if the Camp isn't open, where the heck is he going to eat?" Papakirk said.
According to The Enquirer's media partner, Fox 19, a drunk driver crashed into the building early Tuesday and was arrested on an OVI charge.
Papakirk initially said the restaurant would be closed “for a few days” for inspections and repairs. Instead, crews finished the work in time for the restaurant to reopen the following morning.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Camp Washington Chili owner says car hit building in 'the perfect spot'
