Pueblo restaurant owners recovering after stolen vehicle drives through their building

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- A Pueblo restaurant is dealing with the aftermath of a car driving through the building.

Around 3 a.m. Saturday, the owners of Julians Restaurant, Cat Tamasonis and Daniel Arellano, woke up to part of their restaurant destroyed.

“It took us all of five years for a matter of seconds to kind of wipe it out ya know," Tamasonis said.

She said they have owned the Pueblo eatery for five years. They have two employees that have been loyal to them throughout the pandemic and this latest hardship.

"We have two waitresses. It's been hard to get employees, very hard. These two girls have stuck through with us," Tamasonis said. "They work at a high volume with us, but they come every day and just to know, what are we going to do the next day for them? They both have kids and what are we going to do?"

They say they will do whatever it takes to retain them. They are exploring take out options while they look into fixing their building.

For the owners, it was a deja vu type of moment. Back in 2017, a day after they signed the papers to open the restaurant, a car slammed into the building nearly leveling it.

“We had just signed leases. We had just purchased the restaurant. We took over from there and then yes, the very next day we got a call. Same thing in the morning get over to the restaurant," Tamasonis said.

They recovered back then, and are committed to recovering once again. This time, instead of feeling anger or resentment towards the driver, they are grateful that no one was hurt.

"I'm glad it was our building. You know, everybody is okay. It's all material stuff, so we will all get together and put it back together," Tamasonis said.

According to the Pueblo Police Department, the car was stolen out of Colorado Springs. The driver was gone before officers and the restaurant owners arrived. No suspect has been identified by police.

Julians Restaurant is currently boarded up. At this time, the owners are unsure of when the restaurant will reopen.