A family whose livelihood was threatened when a brawl outside broke through into their restaurant has said that their community helped them get back on their feet.
On Monday, April 18, the Carney family were sitting down for dinner when they received a call from a friend of theirs, telling them that there was a police presence outside their restaurant, called 625 in West Kirby. Minutes later another call came in, this time from the police, informing them that 625 had been damaged during an altercation that occurred outside.
When they arrived, they saw the whole front window smashed, glass was all over the shop floor. For the family it wasn't just the main source of income on the line but their whole life project.
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Steve Carney and Charlie Parsons, the father and son duo who run 625 with occasional help from other members of the family, confessed that they're a family of "food obsessives" and that their main concern, even over the financial loss, was not being able to entertain once again.
Yet despite having their family's livelihood put on the line, Steve and Charlie said that what stuck with them most throughout the incident was the kindness and generosity of their local community, who supported them as they got back on their feet.
Steve told the ECHO: "The whole front window was smashed completely. So it was a bit of a shock. And what was worse is that a lot of people thought we'd closed, they thought we'd shut down for good."
Charlie added: "We don't usually open on a Monday but it was a bank holiday, and we'd actually had a really good weekend." Steve continued: "We had to get hire someone to come down and board up the window. That was about £500 on the spot, just for that.
"This hit us quite badly. We had people coming in and saying sorry to hear about the closure. But it's a really nice community. Everybody was so helpful and we had people phoning us up to offer help.
"We didn't know then but one of our regulars who always comes in for a meal does glazing and he was offering to fit the new glass for us for free. Loads of the local businesses and restaurants were offering to help.
"They were asking what we were stuck for- food, drinks, loads of different things that impact the business. We managed to get the glass fitted by Thursday. Then we had to repaint the window and everything but we managed to open on Friday night.
"We knew if we didn't open on Friday we'd lose the weekend's trade, and obviously with such a small business that's a massive impact because we were still paying everyone and our fees. "We ended up having one of our busiest weekends on the weekend following, after we'd fixed it. That was thanks to everyone's help.
"We're so grateful for all the support."
