What's old is new again on the corner of Queen Street and Guelph Avenue in Hespeler Village as Ernie's Roadhouse has reopened under different ownership.
Mike Napier and Joel Cook are the ones responsible for the revamped restaurant and bring a wealth of experience to the table. The pair were part owners of the Old Marina Restaurant in Puslinch that was ravaged by a fire in the summer of 2022.
In the nearly two years since, Napier has been focusing on his real estate career but the thought of owning another business was always in the back of his mind.
As it turns out, it was the same for Cook.
Napier and Cook both independently saw the listing for Ernie's a few months back and it piqued their interest. When they connected about it, it seemed like a natural fit.
"In searching for other businesses, Ernie's popped up," Napier said.
"Joel called me and said it was for sale and I said I saw it. We came for lunch the following week and started doing some background work in terms of what we could bring. And here we are."
Doubling as a realtor, Napier put a lot of emphasis on the location and how he projects the area to grow in the future.
With a few soft openings now under their belt and officially being open to dine in customers, he's hoping to bring some of the Marina with him into the core.
"You come downtown, you can just stand at the lights and look at how things have changed over the last 10, 20, 30 years," he said of his belief in the viability of the market.
"We're trying to bring the feel from the restaurant side of the Marina, which we've been successful with, and blend it with Ernie's having the bar and a bit of a different feel. We want to do the things we did well at the Marina and use the things that worked well here."
From burgers to fish and chips, the restaurant is retaining a classic roadhouse style menu.
When it comes to the Old Marina, Napier was quick to express the dream of reopening is still very much alive.
"Absolutely, yes, definitely," Napier said about the idea of resurrecting the old restaurant.
"We still have plans to bring back the Marina. We're still speaking with our landlord that owns the building. We have every intent to rebuild. It's very slow, there's a lot of permitting and insurance stuff that needs to be filtered through. From this point, I think it'd be another couple years."
Napier said his goal is to reopen it and run both the Old Marina and Ernie's Roadhouse.