When Satchel Raye thinks of fire, he doesn’t feel defeat — he sees a new opportunity.
After a Dec. 5 fire burned down his restaurant’s gift shop and open-bar waiting area, known as Lightnin’ Salvage Enterprises, Raye said he immediately got to work on rebuilding.
“We can redesign it exactly how we want,” the Satchel’s Pizza owner said. “It’ll just be a 2.0 version.”
Raye, 48, said he opened Lightnin’ Salvage back in 2006 as a gift shop that would give the pizza joint some room to breathe. At first, Raye said he needed the space to unclog the restaurant’s main entrance and redirect customers waiting in line. Ten years later, it ended up being a major source of income.
Since losing the gift shop in December, Raye said the business has lost more than 75 percent of its total profit and about 30 percent of its customer base.
“It was a big part of what we are,” he said. “We need it for our business to survive.”
To Raye, Lightnin’ Salvage was a lot of things: a junk museum, a gift shop, a toy store and a place for the kids to run around. On any given weeknight, when business was slow for the pizza, Raye said Lightnin’ Salvage would be filled with customers engaged in trivia, storytelling, belly-dancing and live music.
“Saturday is very busy, it’s the busiest day of the week, but come on Tuesday and we’re dead,” he said. “You can’t just live on your weekends.”
He got to work on rebuilding Lightnin’ Salvage right after the fire, but between drawing up new plans, getting approval from the city and keeping up to code on everything, Raye said it’s been a long process.
Raye said he hopes for the new space to open by December. At the moment, he and the local construction firm he hired, Joyner Construction, are waiting on finalized permits from the city and Gainesville Regional Utilities.
Since they started work in April, the construction crew has cleared debris, set up a construction fence around the perimeter and collected necessary parts, said Joyner project manager Ryland Wagner.
With a 40-year legacy in local construction, Wagner said Joyner has built local staples including UF’s Southwest Recreation Center, Butler Town Center and Gigi’s Cupcakes.
Wagner said that in rebuilding Lightnin’ Salvage, Joyner is continuing its service to community-oriented businesses — and that’s something to be proud of.
“It’s one of those buildings that we feel like really just contribute back to Gainesville,” Wagner said. “We take a lot of pride in those.”
Lightnin’ Salvage wasn’t Satchel’s first fire, Raye said. Back in 2012, a smoldering kitchen fire caused the restaurant to close down for 3 1/2 months.
Even then, despite the hardship, Raye saw it as an opportunity to rebrand and improve.
“The kitchen we have now is at least 10 times, 20 times, better than the kitchen we had before the fire,” he said.
Tyler Pratt has been going to Raye’s restaurant since he was 12 years old.
Anytime his family made the drive up from Tampa, Florida, to catch a Gators football or basketball game, they went to Satchel’s. Now a 19-year-old UF business sophomore, Pratt says Satchel’s holds a special place in his heart.
“It’s not just the pizza, it’s the atmosphere,” he said. “It’s unique, it’s different. I like the hipster vibe.”
Whenever a friend wants a new place to eat or hangout, Pratt said Satchel’s is his go-to.
“They get obsessed with it, and then they start bringing people over,” he said. “It’s like a train.”
Pratt said while growing up, almost every time he and his family went to Satchel’s, they would stop in the Lightnin’ Salvage store. He said he remembers the layout like the back of his hand.
When the new store opens up later this year, Pratt said he’ll be there to analyze every detail and compare it to the Lightnin’ Salvage he remembers from his childhood.
“If I can tell a difference in the store, it’s missing something,” he said jokingly.
Now, looking at about six more months worth of work and nearly $500,000 to rebuild the store he lost, Raye is optimistic.
When he’s not spending time with his family or working at the restaurant, Raye said he’s in his studio, painting tiles to decorate the new Lightnin’ Salvage.
“I’m an artist,” he said. “We’ll just pick ourselves up and keep going.”
Contact David Hoffman at dhoffman@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter: @hoffdavid123.
On Dec. 5, a fire burned down Satchel Pizza’s gift shop and open-bar waiting area, Lightnin’ Salvage Enterprises. Now, owner Satchel Raye is working to rebuild it and hopes to reopen it by December.
