Residents in communities along the south shore of Nova Scotia have responded to a call for help from a struggling local restaurant, raising over $20,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to help the business get through the difficult winter months.
The Old Black Forest Restaurant has been a fixture in the community of Lunenburg for over 20 years. Nathan Guggenheimer, who recently moved to Nova Scotia from Saskatoon, purchased the restaurant in March 2020, with dreams of bringing a traditional German dining experience to the south shore.
However, the purchase was made about a week before the arrival of the province’s first COVID-19 cases, putting those dreams on hold.
“It was a big learning curve for our restaurant, and also how to innovate and stay alive and do things that we didn’t plan on doing, or didn’t really want to do in the first place,” said Guggenheimer, also known around the eatery as “Chef Googs.”
Guggenheimer said the restaurant was able to make it through the summer months, but things became bleaker throughout the winter.
That’s why he and his team of four decided to reach out to the community for help, through the form of a Kickstarter campaign. Their goal was to raise $20,000 in order to build what they call “The Greatest Little Patio,” equipped with new furniture and heaters, as well as bicycle racks and fix-it stations for cyclists passing through.
Within a couple of weeks, the community responded, raising over $22,000 for the small business.
“Everybody was coming in and saying, ‘We want to support you, we want you to stay here, don’t go anywhere,'” Guggenheimer said.
“Honestly, it made me emotional.”
The team at the Old Black Forest Restaurant is made of four people, including chef Silvio Schatz, sous chef Dylan Dearing, as well as Lisa Leschorn-Schatz, in charge of social media and serving.
Dearing said the team wouldn’t have been able to reach the goal without the selfless actions of their community.
“There’s no competition. Everyone wants everyone else to flourish,” Dearing said. “I think even if it wasn’t in the situation we’re in now, it would still be the same thing.
“But it is great to see in such a dire time everyone coming together.”
Along with the fully accessible patio, the restaurant plans to refresh the interior with a new paint job as well as a donor wall for those who pitched in. It also plans to continue its 4-for-4 meal program, in which it donates a free meal to families in need for every four meals sold.
Work on the new patio is expected to start as soon as possible.
“Come in and eat a schnitzel, drink a beer, hopefully when the patio’s finished, sit down on the patio and enjoy the sun,” Schatz said.