After months of remodeling and repair, the local restaurant Didier’s, famous for their frozen yogurt, is finally ready to reopen its doors on Feb. 27. The store was under construction since November of last year after a car accident nearly demolished the building.

“I can really relate to people who have had their houses burn down and just lost everything, it’s such a mind boggling thing,” owner Karen Etten said remembering the incident.

Employee and Whitworth sophomore Selene Meyers recalls the aftermath of the crash.

“I got to go in about three days after it happened,” she said. “The only thing that was still intact was the hot fudge machine. Basically every machine and everything we used was ruined.”

Etten said there will be a few changes to the eatery, but the place overall is very much the same.

“We had to make some changes to code updates,” she said. “We changed the color scheme, that’s about it.”

She said she hopes the returning customers will like the changes.

“It’s so hard to go from cool blue, white-greys to a warmer palette. I hope it’s pulling together good,” she said. “I hope that’s what people say when they come in is ‘oh I like it.’”

Etten said she felt like with everything new, the restaurant got a second chance. For Etten it was important to bring back Didier’s because she explained that after working in a place for over 15 years it feels like home.

Didier’s is raising the bar with its new frozen yogurt machines.

“Each of these machines is a $25,000 machine and there’s four of them,” Etten said. “These produce the best quality of yogurt that you can compared to the other ones with the pour overs with gravity fed. When you go to these other places their machines are, I don’t know, $10,000? These produce the best.”

Etten said Didier’s also tries to offer more when it comes to service.

“We’re more into the service aspect of it where we serve it to you,” she said. “We have more invested in it.”

Etten said she believes that because of the high quality machines and the fact that Didier’s blends their own flavors themselves, customers will be more than happy with the product.

People in the community are already excited about Didier’s opening again.

“We have tons of people come by every day,” Etten said.

Etten said she is still worried about her regular customers returning.

“In this day and age when you’re closed, when you’re out of the loop for long, will you get back your regular customers?” she said. “It’s a scary question for us, will our customers come back.”

Meyers said she is excited to get back to work at Didier’s.

“I recognize a lot of people from the college, especially on Tuesdays,” Meyers said about working there.

Meyers will resume her job when Didier’s opens again.

“I keep thinking about it every time I pass,” she said. “I probably will work there through the rest of my college years.”

Etten said the restaurant may have a soft open sooner if Didier’s is restored in time. The popular eatery is anticipated to be full of customers on opening day.

Etten said customers are already knocking on the doors and peeking in the windows in anticipation.

Contact Sandra Tully at [email protected].