Support Basic Bird's Recovery After Car Crash

Our names are Joe and Alex Tripp and we are the owners of Basic Bird in Beaverdale. We bought the building back in 2023, and immediately went into a complete teardown and restoration of the former Rice Bowl. The buildout took nearly a year and did not go without a number of unforeseen and costly issues, some of which we are still dealing with today.

Since opening in January of 2024 (only a year ago), we have had 3 fires, we replaced the water heater twice as a result, plus additional hefty investments into a new make up air system to fix the negative pressure in the building causing these fires, a lightning strike that caused serious electrical damages including a new panel box, vandalism, and a complete failure of the plumbing that required total excavation and replacement of the plumbing that ran through the middle of our dining room, all of which accrued damages well exceeding $50,000. About 6 months ago, we found ourselves selling our retirement accounts to keep things afloat and to cover the financial losses.

We had just been talking about how we finally had a stretch of time where we didn’t have to invest a large sum of money into this project, and then a car came crashing through our dining room the same day.

Fortunately, nobody was dining with us at the window seats that were hit, and we avoided any injuries among staff, but the driver of the car was unfortunately not insured, and this will come down entirely on us and our business insurance to cover the cost of damage and loss of business. From our experience in the past, insurance rarely covers anywhere near the total damage experienced or the loss of business, and is anything but timely with what it does cover. We have a number of employees that are immediately without work as a result of this, and at a bare minimum, we will lose out on a week's worth of revenue. Needless to say, the bills will not stop coming in just because we are not open.

We are forced to ask for community help getting our business through these tough times. Basic Bird was born at the height of the pandemic to keep jobs for our employees, and as a way to serve our community through a difficult time. We have battled through nonstop challenges and setbacks and have received incredible support from our customers along the way, but sadly, this could be the last nail in the coffin without additional help from our neighbors, friends, and community.

First and foremost, funds will go to help pay our employees while we rebuild, namely hourly employees whose lost wages are not covered by insurance, so that we can keep them whole and onboard. Second, the funds will help us survive the period where we cannot generate revenue to pay our bills, now and for future closures during repairs. Any remaining funds would help us with repairs not fully covered by business insurance, so that we can be made whole by this truly catastrophic event. Upon returning back to business as usual, we will pay every cent we raise forward and back to the community. We want more than anything to have a long future as a key business in the great Beaverdale community, and appreciate any support we can get in this challenging time.