FOREST PARK, Ga. — A metro Atlanta restaurant says a burst pipe last summer sent him to a new location in a new city. Now, he’s experiencing déjà vu when a pipe burst in his new restaurant this week.
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“When I walked in here yesterday, this ceiling was busted open,” Derrick Hayes, owner of Big Dave’s Cheesesteak in Forest Park, said “I was like, nah, this can’t be happening. This is like a nightmare.”
Hayes told Channel 2′s Michael Doudna he found a busted ceiling, broken pipes and around six inches of water coating the floor.
It was definitely from the weather. I think it was so cold we weren’t set up for it. In Georgia, we don’t get temperatures like this back-to-back,” Hayes said.
The restaurant was able to open back up on Friday, and Hayes says he feels lucky what happened last year didn’t happen again.
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Hayes says a major water main break in downtown Atlanta caused a sewage pipe to burst in his restaurant. The damage was so bad, he had to close up shop for good.
“I lost my flagship location, 57th [and] Forsyth St, but that one was sewage water. A lot more damage, the ceiling fell in, it wasn’t worth saving,” he described.
He has since opened a new location in downtown Atlanta.
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