DUBLIN, Ohio -- When it comes to businesses that have been hit hardest by the recession, the restaurant industry sits near the top.
A number of restaurants have closed their doors recently. In fact, last month, Max & Erma's, who filed for bankruptcy in October, closed a second location in Central Ohio and 12th nationally.
However, in these trying times, one chain based in Columbus says things are looking up.
The smell of coffee and bacon isn't the only thing in the air at Sunny Street Cafe on Hospital Drive in Dublin -- so is excitement. Wednesday was the restaurant's first day in business.
"Exciting, nervous, anxious," says Kate Mikhail who co-owns the restaurant with her husband, Asch. She says it's been a long two years since they bought the Columbus-based franchise.
"With the economy, the financing, securing the financing, that was our biggest challenge, then finding the site and negotiating the lease and getting everything finally squared away," she says.
As if opening a restaurant during these economic times wasn't difficult enough, they also did it while raising three children and Asch working full-time at another job.
Now, with a staff of 30 employees, the restaurant is up and running and they haven't looked back. "We knew this is what we wanted to do," she says. "We knew it was time."
For the company, business is booming.
This marks the 14th Sunny Street Cafe, formerly named Rise & Dine, to open in several states; the 6th in Columbus.
Company board chairman Mike Stasko, says they have plans to open at least a dozen more restaurants in the near future.
"Breakfast, lunch and catering are just excellent. It's one of the few markets that are actually growing in the restaurant industry," says Stasko. "When the moment's right, you know it's something you want to do, you can't wait. You just have to do it."
Mark Glasper with the Ohio Restaurant Association says Sunny Street Cafe may be the exception to the rule. He says the future of the restaurant industry all has to do with jobs and until employment and restaurant sales improve statewide, the outlook for restaurants isn't good.
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