Local Flavour: Big Apple (Book 3, the Local Flavour Series)

Part 3: Miles Away

One day not long after her father's funeral, Lucy found herself on a windswept cliff studying a shuttered, abandoned restaurant. Not just any restaurant — it was attached to one of the country's oldest lighthouses. Quinn had found it; an improbable but romantic site for their new place. There'd be challenges, difficult ones. It was a crazy idea. But not impossible.

Lucy had walked the perimeter, dodging the spray of the waves and carefully avoiding the black rocks. You never went on the black rocks. Everyone in Port Ross knew that from growing up in a place that was basically a large splinter of land jutting out into the water. The large, dark stones were the ones closest to the sea. Many people ignored posted warnings over the years and found themselves drenched by a surprise wave. Years ago, someone had even been tragically swept out to sea by a rogue wave on an otherwise calm day.

Luckily, that hadn't happened for a long time; most people were more cautious now than when she was a kid. She and her partners would take every precaution to make sure their patrons were safe. She'd need to check with lawyers on potential liability if, God forbid, anything happened.

She was a worrier by nature, so the wildness of the place gave her pause but not enough to quash the idea. Besides, the rugged beauty of the location would set them apart — it was key to their success. The ancient tourist trap that used to operate there was their main competitor when she was younger; drawing the majority of tourists away from their own family restaurant with its iconic lighthouse and stunning, unpredictable ocean. Her father blamed the place for their restaurant's eventual fall from popularity. It seemed fitting somehow that she would buy and make it her own after all those years. She felt her father would approve, somehow.

The structure was weathered, and it would need a lot of work to get it up to code, but the place had enormous potential. She saw families at the picnic table area, taking pictures at sunset, couples enjoying sunlit cocktails inside and watching the waves dance in the distance.

She called Quinn on the spot and told him he was right — it was perfect. Leon was already on board as a partner in the business; she just needed one more person: Marnie. Her best friend from high school and tough-as-hell single mom had put herself through grad school, recently receiving her master of finance degree. She was perfect to run the business end of things, and Lucy knew she'd run a tight ship. Lucy would be general manager and the face of the business, handling promotion, day-to-day problems large and small, and front-of-house during service. Quinn and Leon would run the kitchen and the newly established Sea Glass Breweries, an onsite craft brewery.

With four equal partners on board, the business was born and quickly began to prosper.

Despite Lucy's objections, she was voted down and the new place was christened Lucy's Return to capitalize on the publicity and goodwill of her previous restaurant. She wanted a name that reflected all four partners, but her previous restaurant had already been featured on national TV. As Marnie pointed out, she was already well-known in the province and beyond. Lucy finally conceded that it made sense, as long as they'd be equal partners in all other aspects of the business. And they were.

She couldn't believe she was looking at the same spot, completely refurbished in an elegant yet understated design to let the natural elements take centre stage — the vast and constantly changing ocean, just outside the large windows. In the summer, they ran tours of the reconstructed lighthouse, the oldest one in the Maritimes.

The dining room was filled to capacity with patrons enjoying their meals, accompanied by soft lighting and the jazz she chose for the evening's soundtrack. She felt pride in all they had accomplished together over the past year, this restaurant almost literally rising from the ashes of her last one.