Everybody faces adversity of one kind or another at one time or another. Bad things happen to good people.

What matters is how we react to the difficulty, how we respond.

John Smucker, who's been the owner of Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord for nearly 40 years, knows some things about adversity and resolve, courage and resilience.

"I've had some adversity from a business standpoint, as I've gone through life, but nothing really, really major until COVID," said Smucker. "We've got a great team here at Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant. We have a management team who has been here many years, and we have a loyal staff. They're with us. They have our backs. They resolved to work through it together. There is a lot of enjoyment we get from being together and working together. When you put that culture together, it equals a lot of resilience."

Following a devastating and debilitating fire on Jan. 30, 2024, Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord, which is located at 2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, officially reopened for business on Aug. 28. An anchor and gathering place in the local community, the restaurant had been closed for 20 months for cleanup, a $6 million renovation project and both physical and emotional healing.

"(Aug. 28) was a glorious day in very much the same way January 30, 2024, was a very dismal kind of dark day," said Smucker. "A substantial part of the building was damaged, some of which was structural. It was a process of six months until we got the building cleaned out to put a plan in front of code officials. You were just constantly working with moving pieces. The process seemed to be in slow gear, and there wasn't a whole lot I could do to accelerate it."

It was 10:15 p.m. on that night in late January of last year and Smucker was at home. The hot fire started from an overheated fan at the restaurant, and it originally charred the roof trusses.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

"On my cellphone, I'm on this list for when the Bird-in-Hand Fire Company gets a call, and I got this text message," said Smucker. "I'm about a mile from the restaurant, and I went outside of my house and saw the smoke pouring out of the building. The fire spread fairly rapidly, but the sprinklers saved the building from total destruction. You just had a buildup of destruction on the main floor. The ceiling imploded, and everything started falling down. As the fire was being put out, there was a lot of smoke damage and water damage on the lower level. It was just a trashy mess."

A seasonal business affected by tourism, Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord employs between 130 and 190 workers. Some of the workers found other jobs, some received unemployment benefits and others eventually returned to work.

"The restaurant has been a gathering place for the community and out-of-town guests since 1970," said Smucker. "It's friends. It's neighbors. The relationships made there go beyond food. It's an iconic place in the Bird-in-Hand community."

"After the fire, the community wanted to help in a major way," added Smucker. "People wanted to come out and help because they felt so bad. We decided to have a community day, and we hauled everything out of the building that was salvageable. It was some major, major investment of time by the community to make the best of it. It was a marvelous thing."

The village of Bird-in-Hand has changed dramatically since the Smucker family first opened the restaurant 55 years ago. In 2004, the business underwent a $4 million renovation, and over the years the kitchen has been enlarged, the dining room has been enlarged, a room for large groups was added and first a small buffet and then a larger smorgasbord was offered.

"It was a blessing that no one was hurt (in the fire)," said Smucker. "It was just all materials and things that can be rebuilt. The silver lining is we have a brand-new place and a brand-new smorgasbord. We were able to build back better. We had wanted to do some things (before the fire). The product we have today is much more efficient and guest friendly. We're good to go for another 20 years."

For additional information, go to https://bird-in-hand.com/restaurant-smorgasbord.