OK Cafe Open for Business (With Pics!)

After months of delays and an unexpected political controversy, Buckhead’s famous OK Cafe is back in business.

OK Cafe was seriously damaged in a Dec. 6, 2014 fire caused by a water heater in an upstairs space. It took months to repair the damage, but OK Cafe owner Susan DeRose had originally planned to re-open the restaurant in May. The City of Atlanta had other ideas, and made demands which pushed the opening back.

Following the racially-motivated mass shooting in a historically black church in Charleston, SC, OK Cafe became the unlikely target of civil rights activists who wanted the eatery to remove its carving of Georgia’s 1956 state flag, which prominently featured a flag of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. A state senator wanted the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau to ignore the restaurant unless it agreed to remove the symbol.

Despite the setbacks, OK Cafe made its triumphant return to the Buckhead restaurant scene on Wednesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said. However, the eatery opened Monday and is expected to serve lunch and dinner as usual for the foreseeable future.

The fire has kept some 100 staff members away from their jobs, but the Buckhead community rallied behind the displaced workers, offering themtemporary restaurant jobs and setting up a fundraiser which ensured each staff member hadenough money to get through the 2014 holiday season.

DeRose told BuckheadView that the employees can expect to be paid for their time off when the restaurant re-opens for business.

Here’s how Buckhead reacted to the re-opening on social media: