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Photos by Darby Magill.
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Jesse Freese was asleep in bed in April 2018 when she heard the loud thud, thud, thud, thud of her husband Jakeās boots bolting up the stairs. It was an odd sound for their household; they never wear shoes inside.
But before she had a chance to think much about it, there was Jakeās face, white as a sheet, hovering over her. āHe just said, āFergieās is on fire. Do you want to say goodbye?āā she recalls. āAnd then he was just gone.ā
Shocked and still processing, she jumped out of bed and went down the street from their Squamish, British Columbia home to Sunwolf, the property of rustic cabins that the British couple bought and now operates together. And there was Fergieāsātheir small onsite restaurant, beloved for its brunch by tourists and locals alikeācompletely ablaze, with flames reaching above the treetops.
āWe stood and watched it burn down,ā Freese remembers. Because they live in a small mountain town, the fire department took almost half an hour to reach Fergieās, at which point the small āshack,ā as Freese calls it, that held the kitchen and bar was a lost cause. The trailer theyād outfitted into a dining room was able to be saved, but with a pile of rubble where their kitchen used to be, the Freeses thought for sure their little eatery was gone for good.
āWe were [originally] told it was a no-build zone,ā Freese says of the land that Sunwolf sits on. āWe watched with absolute certainty that that was the end of our restaurant. We just knew; we werenāt even going to ask to rebuild it. And then they called us and asked us to rebuild it.ā Because a structure had already existed on that land, the district told them, they were allowed to replace what was there.
Still, it wasnāt an instant yes for the Freese couple. With three young kids, they had to really reflect on whether or not a completely new build would be worth their time, money, and energy. It was on a previously-planned trip to Costa Ricaāone they couldnāt cancel last-minuteāthat they decided theyād go for it. Fergieās would rise from the ashes.
āIt was a mission,ā Freese says now, sitting at a table in Fergieās 2.0. āWeāre happy to be here, but itās been a really, really long 20 months.ā
Once they decided to go for it, though, they were all in. They spared no expense and no detail, making sure the new space spoke to their hearts from a design perspective, was as environmentally-friendly as possible, and fixed some problems from the previous setup.
āThe real silver lining is that we were dealing with problems with staff, problems with equipmentāso to us, Fergieās had grown into this place that was fraught with challenges,ā Freese admits. āIt was a tiny shack that was trying to do way more than it could do, so then when [the fire] happened, the massive silver lining was reading all these messages of support. āOh, itās my favourite place in the world, I canāt believe itās gone.ā And we werenāt hearing that from anyone anymore.ā
So they took the opportunity to address some of those issues, starting with a completely purpose-built kitchen that could comfortably punch out many more meals than the old space could handle. It also gave them the opportunity to increase their seating, both indoors and outdoors, and to make the whole thing wheelchair-accessible with a ramp that goes from the parking lot to the second-storey dining area.
Adding heartbreak to heartbreak, though, the Freese couple found out in January 2020āshortly after reopeningāthat a leak in a beverage line needed immediate preventative maintenance. And just like that, Fergieās was closed again. Fast-forward to March, and the restaurant was able to open for all of one day before shutting its doors due to the threat of the novel coronavirus.
But now, at long last, Fergieās is open. For real this time (following safety guidelines from the provincial health authority).
And despite all of these recent changes and challenges, some things about Fergieās have remained the same since its inception: cult-favourite brunch dishes like The Dubliner eggs Benny (double-smoked bacon, aged cheddar, pickled red onion, apple) and the Pulled Pork Hash (smoked pork, yam, kale, sunny-side-up egg, potato hash, seasonal veggies) are still on the menu. Itās that same great Fergieās taste, but now the space has more soul; some of that rustic charm from the old āshackā may be gone, but what has been formed in its wake is something even more magical, because itās truly theirs. āThis,ā Freese says without a doubt, āis our legacy.ā