SUSQUEHANNA -- Just about seven months after a fire destroyed Drinker Creek Beverage on Erie Avenue in Susquehanna Borough, the business is set to reopen in a new location on Saturday.
Owner Ryan Dubas and his wife, Melissa, keep busy sorting through cases of beer that have arrived at the new shop on Erie Boulevard in the heart of downtown.
"There was a lot of doubt right after the fire," said Dubas. "That was really tough. We didn't know where we were going from there. But I keep telling my wife all week, 'it's like Christmas morning all week.'"
Other than the foundation and a couple of spare nails, there's not much left for neighbors to look at on the old site, but there's still a sense of excitement in the community seeing an old business come back to life.
"Now you can see the stream and everything over there," said neighbor Don Heffner. "I didn't know all that stuff was behind it until after the building was gone."
Joking aside, Heffner knows how important this business is to the community with Dubas is one of the few young business owners in the borough.
"It's good for Susquehanna getting another business back going again instead of having another close down," he added.
"There's really nobody else young like him doing anything," added neighbor Dave Hankey. "It's all older people, and at some time they're going to retire."
Drinker Creek Beverage will have a grand reopening Saturday at 10 a.m.