Rathskeller opening pushed back

This story appeared as part of the 2010 Year In Review issue. The Daily Tar Heel resumes publication Jan. 10.

Rat packs may have to wait a little longer than originally expected for a Chapel Hill landmark to re-open.

Diane Fountain, one of the new owners of the Ramshead Rathskeller, said the opening date of the restaurant and bar has been pushed back to January or February.

“What took so long was the construction budget,” she said. “To come in and renovate, I’m at about close to $1 million.

“It was a lot more than I anticipated.”

The Danzigers, a family of Austrian immigrants, opened the Rathskeller, nicknamed “The Rat” in 1948 after moving to Chapel Hill. The space sits on Amber Alley below Franklin Street and across from Bandido’s Mexican Cafe.

The Rathskeller closed in 2008 after the owner failed to pay his taxes, Fountain said.

Fountain said that while investor interest in the renovation of the Rat has been high, the costs of re-opening have forced her to re-evaluate some aspects of the business.

“The resources I don’t feel are a problem,” she said. “What I thought it was going to be doubled, so I had to drop back and punt.”

Fountain said the construction costs don’t include kitchen equipment, which averages $150,000, and exhaust systems, which will cost about $120,000.

But Fountain is looking to match the new equipment with authentic restaurant regalia.

“We’re thankful that the people that bought a lot of the paraphernalia — memorabilia, booths — want to give it back,” she said.

Fountain has also been working to regain what may be the Rat’s most valuable original fixtures — its employees.

She said she has talked to the staff at Sutton’s Drug Store to help her track down the Rat’s former cooks and waiters.

“I’m in there talking to them one day. I said, ‘You know, I really want to find the old staff,’” she said. “They have just been awesome.”

John Woodard, the owner and head pharmacist of Sutton’s since 1977, said he still stays in touch with some of the Rathskeller’s former employees who gave the place its character.

“Just knowing the guys that worked down there, it was part of a Franklin Street family,” Woodard said. “It’s hard to recapture something like that when most of the guys which made the Rathskeller are no longer able to work or they’ve passed on.

“It was the guys that worked down there that made the Rathskeller ‘the Rat.’”

Eugene Lyons, better known as “Pops,” worked as an assistant manager and head waiter at the Rathskeller for 42 years before it closed.

While Lyons said that he doesn’t know if he will return when the restaurant re-opens, he said he’s excited to see the plans underway.

“In the glory days, it was real good,” he said. “It was a real nice place to work, got a lot of good friends coming up through the years, met a lot of good people.

“I hope it does real well.”

But Fountain isn’t taking no for an answer.

“I don’t know what I have to do to get him back, but he has to,” she said. “He just has to, anything that man wants to do.”

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.