Loyal customers filled the parking lot of the newly rebuilt Chez Camille restaurant in Cap-Pelé, located in the newly amalgamated community of Cap-Acadie, N.B., on Friday, almost exactly a year after it burned to the ground.
“I was actually in the parking lot at 10:57 (a.m.),” said customer Bradley Ouellet, who showed up exactly three minutes before opening.
“I missed their food so much, I missed the great workers, they’re very friendly and kind people.”
The original building burned down on April 24, 2022, early in the morning.
No one was inside the building at the time, and no one was hurt.
The provincial RCMP called the fire suspicious, linking it to a string of fires in the Southeast District that started in 2019.
The incidents are still under investigation.
The restaurant has been a staple in the small rural community for decades.
“The old building lasted 50 years,” owner Bradley Powers said on Friday. “So hopefully this one will last 50 too.”
He ran a food truck in the location last summer and took the opportunity to build a new restaurant triple the size of the old one.
He said the new building is “state of the art.”
He said it was paid for through a combination of their insurance claim, profits from previous years, “a lot of luck and a few bank loans.”
Customers like Céline Bourque were impressed with the new building.
“It’s gorgeous,” Bourque said. “It’s absolutely beautiful it’s nice and spacious and the mural inside is absolutely gorgeous.”
The mural depicts a fishing boat, along with the original owners of the business.
“There was nothing left of the old building,” Powers said. “So in honouring where we came from we thought we’d put a big mural of the founders.”
Powers bought the restaurant in 2018.
When reached for comment, the provincial RCMP referred Global News to the Shediac RCMP.
The Shediac RCMP did not respond to a request for comment before publication time.