CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — About two weeks ago a fire caused the iconic restaurant Hi-Ho to close it's doors.
Rick Garcia has owned the restaurant for 13 years but has been around for more than 40 years and he tells us his reopening after the fire was something special.
"Oh I am so happy, I have a smile bigger than texas right now, I am so excited, this is a great day for me, it's probably better than 13 years ago when I started," Garcia said.
On Nov 17th fire crews responded to a fire at the restaurant. The roof on the back side caught fire and no one was hurt. Since then --- Garcia and his staff have been working together to reopen as soon as possible.
Paul Rodriguez, a customer that has been coming for years, said when he first heard about the fire, he was worried about the staff because they have become his family.
"It feels very comfortable you know like normally I would never eat by myself, but I can come here, and I feel comfortable I feel like you know I don't have to have somebody sitting with me,"Rodriguez said.
Benjamin Ponce the manager at Hi-Ho said the hardest part about the fire was turning away their loyal customers and of course their 35 employees that had to be without work for 11 days.
"The people are here the people are showing up, we want to thank the community for showing up and supporting hi ho restaurant, we want to thank the fireman who showed up that day and the people, the electricians everyone that showed up."Ponce said.
And the big day finally came on Wednesday and Garcia added he couldn't have done it without the help of all the community who supported him throughout this experience.
" It made me stronger, and it just goes to show that things happen in life in a blink for an eye,"he said.
Garcia said Hi-Ho is back and business and hopes to continue to leave an impacted in the community.
For him its important to be able to serve the Westside community and all his loyal customers.
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