That didn't work so well. Many took it to be a kitchen supply store or one of those places where you prepare meals ahead of time to take home and freeze.
"Alisha is kind of the one who started this and we kind of put the pieces together and finished it," says Sandy Bruce of Detail Design & Fabrication, the company responsible for the new interior design. "By the time we picked up all the pieces and rerouted everybody we had to push it for after Mother's Day."
"We met the Vojteks through mutual friends, heard their stories, enjoyed the food," Bruce continues. "We were just really touched by their story, being a husband and wife, the challenges they were facing, and also seeing that we could so easily help them. [Design is] what we do every day, it's such an easy thing for us to be able to help them and help their business."
Eight months later, the cafe was transformed from a pasty, 80s family dining room into a bright, classic diner space. Out with the pastel wallpaper, in with evenly painted dark orange walls and metal accents, sleek wood counter and cabinets, recycled polychrome plastic table tops, and quarky decorations such as the giant spatula hanging over the kitchen window.
The work cost DD&F about $15,000 in total. 'We didn't give it a second thought at all," Bruce says.
The touching nature of the couple's story also pulled PR specialist Morgan Vanderwall into the project, as well as Bright Bokeh Videographers and Farnham Advertising and Design. "I was just completely moved by their personalities and the spirit of wanting to move forward but not having the means to," Vanderwall says.
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