The Vermont Butcher Shop, Londonderry
“It was horrible to sit back and watch everything you own and care deeply about get lost to the flood. There was nothing we could do.” –Tony Boston, The Vermont Butcher Shop
Tony Boston joined The Vermont Butcher Shop team shortly after it opened in 2014. He worked his way up to general manager and partial owner along with founder Peter Sharp and his son J.D. Sharp.
It’s been a hectic summer to say the least.
First, we had a fire in the small production kitchen above the retail shop on Friday, June 30. It started at 4 p.m. so fortunately we were around. I grabbed a hose and tried to spray it back, but then the smoke got too thick. I went downstairs and told the staff we needed to get out. But Kris, our shop manager, is also a volunteer firefighter. He wet a towel and wrapped it around his face, went upstairs, and kept the fire from expanding.
The fire department was here within 5 minutes. The building sustained significant damage. We lost the upstairs kitchen and office, including our computer server and all the data and history of the last 10 years. We lost all our product because the power had to be cut. We closed for renovation on what is normally one of the busiest weekends of the year, July 4th.
We did all the demo and reconstruction, and the plan was to reopen on July 14.
We had the building inspection scheduled for Tuesday, July 11. That obviously never happened.
On Monday, July 10, I got a call at 5:45 a.m. from a friend saying Londonderry was underwater, and I needed to get down there to save our van. By the time I got to town at 6:15 a.m., Route 100 in front of the shop was completely flooded, and water came over the top of my tires. I couldn’t even reach the shop. So we spent the whole day wondering how bad is it going to get. The water receded and then doubled by late afternoon. It was horrible to sit back and watch everything you own and care deeply about get lost to the flood. There was nothing we could do. The fire took out our upstairs, and two weeks later, the flood took out the rest.
We wondered if the building would even be salvageable. Fortunately, our retail butcher shop is constructed to be water-resistant so it has no drywall or fiberglass insulation. Instead we use FRP (fiberglass-reinforced plastic washable wallboard) and spray-foam insulation. So we pulled off the FRP, cut holes in the plywood, and dried out the place in a couple of days. Then, we started to rebuild and replace everything. That was a five-week sprint, and we did all the work ourselves. I have some construction background; my coworkers Kris and Isaac were fast learners and did an amazing job; and a contractor friend of mine offered some guidance.
We reopened on Friday, August 11. It felt incredible, a huge relief after six weeks of hemorrhaging money, lost equipment, construction costs, and restocking product. What motivated me to work from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, for five weeks straight? I felt the burden of responsibility for the guys who work with us. We were not willing to let them go. Thanks to them, we got the business up and running.
The community response has been phenomenal through the fire and the flood. The customers keep coming, and they seem genuinely happy to see us. It reminds me why we do this work.
