When Nepalese restaurant The Cheel opened the doors of its new building to friends and family on Nov. 8 in downtown Thiensville, it was three years to the day that owners Barkha Daily and Jesse Daily watched in horror as their previous restaurant building was engulfed in smoke and flames.
The accidental fire resulted in a total loss of the 130-year-old building at 105 S. Main St., leaving The Cheel without a home as it continued to navigate the financial and operational fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the Dailys and business partner Matthew Buerosse forged ahead with plans to construct an entirely new building on the same site, at the corner of South Main Street and Buntrock Avenue. That’s where the Dailys originally opened The Cheel in 2014 after purchasing and renovating the historic Commercial House & Hotel building.
Breaking ground in November 2021, the estimated $2 million project to reconstruct The Cheel progressed in fits and starts due to numerous obstacles along the way, including increased costs of borrowing and construction materials, supply chain disruption, inclement weather and delays in the village’s permitting process.
“It seemed like everything was a battle … but our focus was to make sure The Cheel opened,” said Barkha Daily.
Now, The Cheel is gearing up to officially reopen to the public on Dec. 1.
The restaurant’s new two-story building features an 1,805-square-foot dining room and bar area on the first floor, with seating for 140 people, and an adjacent outdoor patio that will seat an additional 30 during the summertime. The second floor has a 1,535-square-foot space that will eventually be used to host events.
Ahead of the official grand reopening, diners can book a table for the restaurant’s soft opening, which runs Tuesday through Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. (11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday).
The purpose of the weeks-long soft opening is to help The Cheel’s team of nearly 30 employees get acclimated to the new space and work out any kinks in the flow between front-of-house and back-of-house, said Daily.
About half of the restaurant’s current staff worked at The Cheel prior to the fire and either stayed on or were rehired; those employees are now instrumental in providing on-the-job training and guidance to new hires who aren’t familiar with The Cheel’s scratch kitchen and authentic menu, inspired by the family recipes and cooking techniques Daily learned growing up in Nepal.
“It takes a lot of time and no matter how well you train your team, the real training just comes on the job,” said Daily. “Even for the team members who have worked here for longest time, there’s still a steep learning curve because you can practice all you want but unless you’re in the weeds, you don’t know what that’ll look like, how many guests are coming in, the questions they’ll ask, getting all those tickets out in time.”
Despite the inevitable learning curve, the restaurant hosted about 500 friends, family and supporters during its invite-only soft opening last weekend, and thanks to her team, Daily said it was the smoothest soft opening she’s ever attended or been apart of. Local business owners, restaurant operators and community leaders also pitched in where they could, some standing in as hosts and bartenders.
Another goal of the soft opening is to establish a direct line of communication with customers. Instead of posting any concerns or negative reviews on rating sites or social media, patrons are asked to share feedback and constructive criticism directly with the restaurant.
“If there’s something wrong that you don’t like, communicate with us because the only way we can grow is by working on it,” said Daily. “We’re new, new building, new team, new space. Even though the food and the drinks are very similar, give us some time and give us some grace. We’re figuring things out.”
That goes for the physical restaurant space as well. Persistent supply chain issues delayed shipment of custom red chairs that Daily ordered months ago. In the interim, the restaurant is borrowing banquet chairs from Milwaukee-based New Land Enterprises, at no cost. An elevator for the building is also back ordered by about 28 weeks. Luckily, the business was able to salvage about 90% of the decor from its former space to use in its new home, creating an atmosphere that blends the old with the new.
Daily expects to have the rest of the building, including the second-floor event space, finished by sometime next year.
“It took a lot to make this happen, and if I knew what I know now, I don’t know if I would have put us through all of this,” she said. “Not in a bad way, I’m really happy we’re here because this was not just my dream, it was the dream of my team members and everybody, but I would have probably just gotten into another building.”
