Customers of Lexington's Southern Lunch will rejoice to hear the restaurant has reopened its side dining room, which closed after the roof collapsed on April 8.

"People have been really supportive of us with the dining room being closed and having longer waits to be seated," owner Herb Lohr said. "Don't get me wrong, it cost me several thousand dollars with that being closed. That's more than 50 seats in there."

Lohr came to his restaurant on Railroad Street on Monday, April 8, a day the restaurant is closed, to do some paperwork in the office. He left, realized he had forgotten to pick up the employees' timecards so he could do payroll, and headed back. When he arrived about 12:30 p.m., he walked into a disaster zone. The ceiling tiles in the side dining room, referred to as "the newer addition" since it was added onto the 100-year-old restaurant in 1995, were hanging down, along with roof trusses and wiring.

"The trusses failed over the years," he said. "The gang nail plates on the trusses failed on 14 different trusses. The roof system fell 13 inches."

Lohr was thankful that it happened when no employees or customers were there. Additionally, engineers' checks on the other parts of the building showed it was safe to be occupied while the dining room repairs took place.

During the time the dining room was closed, signs hung throughout the rest of the restaurant asking customers to please be courteous of those waiting to be seated while dining space was limited.

Southern Lunch has experienced disasters before and always come back. The most recent came in 2007, when a lightning strike started a fire that destroyed the building. It took over a year to rebuild and reopen.