Hank's Place, the iconic family restaurant along the Brandywine Creek in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, reopened Tuesday after a long rebuilding process.

The longtime roadside diner reopened Tuesday morning to a line of customers, many of whom had been coming to the restaurant for decades. Some went for the pancakes, others for the nostalgia, but all came for the same reason: Hank's Place feels like home.

"It's awesome to be home," one loyal customer said over coffee and eggs. "I've been ordering the same thing here for 20 years."

The original restaurant sustained severe damage from the remnants of Hurricane Ida in September 2021. The dining room, front kitchen, back kitchen and outside area were flooded.

"It was a total loss," co-owner Katie Young said. "It came inside over our roof. We lost everything."

That building was demolished in 2023, and the owners started constructing a new restaurant that is protected against storms. In the meantime, the restaurant operated out of a temporary location in Kennett Square, which has now closed.

The restaurant will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. to start, according to a news release. Dinner service and longer hours will be added for Tuesday through Saturday soon.

"Feels great," customer Gigi McGee from Wilmington, Delaware, said. "I missed them so much, and the place is so beautiful. I'm loving it."

The restaurant features a dining room with both table and counter seating, as well as outdoor tables offering a view of the water. All table service is available on a first-come, first-served basis, but reservations are accepted for parties of 10 or more people.

"We drive past on Route 1 frequently, and it seems like it's taken forever to finish the place," Lee Cross from Centerville, Delaware, said. "So we're just happy they're open and the food is exactly the same as it was before."

A history of rebuilding

The reopening coincides with the restaurant's 75th anniversary. Hank's Place opened as a roadside eatery in 1950. That first location — a "tiny little place," in the words of co-owner Anthony Young — was washed away in a flood.

The restaurant has been rebuilt four times since 1950 because of heavy rain.

In 2017, Katie and Anthony Young, a local couple who met at the restaurant, purchased the business. They were beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic when the storm struck and destroyed everything.

The couple pivoted to a food truck and then a temporary restaurant in Kennett Square, all while planning the full rebuild focused on flood-resistant design. It was a difficult journey, the Youngs said.

"It was pretty tough as a couple," Anthony Young said. "We lost our livelihood. We lost our business. This was a mainstay of the community." 

Preparing for more storms

The new Hank's Place is 9 feet above ground on concrete pillars.

"A lot of thought and engineering went into rebuilding this place responsibly, the smart way, just like you'd find a lot of places do down at the beach," Young said. "Trying to keep this to last for generations to come."  

In the new restaurant, artwork that survived the flood decorates the walls, a reminder that even after loss, new beginnings can feel like home.

"It felt like the entire community showed up for us," Young said, "and kind of gave us the strength to just keep on going."

In a final personal touch, the owners created handcrafted ceramic mugs using soil from the original property, now available for customers to purchase as a piece of Hank's legacy.