This restaurant in Old Town Clovis has been closed two months. Here’s plan to reopen

Julie Glenn is a serial optimist.

The Clovis restaurateur admittedly sees the world through rose-colored glasses. For her, the cup is half full and likely filled with lemonade that she has made with all the lemons life has sent her way.

“Even if it’s a little sour.”

So nearly two months after her restaurant in Old Town Clovis, House of Juju, was shut down by an accident that flooded the kitchen, she still manages to find the blessings among the devastation.

For instance, even though it was after hours when a plumbing broke, there was an employee still on site who spotted water gushing from the ceiling and was able to put out a distress call.

“Thankfully, we got there in a matter of 30 minutes,” Glenn says.

And they were able to shut off the main water line before it got the rest of the restaurant. Yes, the kitchen was flooded with two inches of water and the restaurant’s computer system was destroyed and its kitchen hood had to be removed, but “it could have been some much worse,” Glenn says.

Luckily, the restaurant was insured and had a good agent who was able to make sure it recouped lost wages for employees. Glenn was even able to get the insurance company to specify that includes the money they employees would be making in tips.

“Our employees have been able to basically keep their jobs and have a paycheck,” she says.

New House of Juju restaurant in Visalia

And because those employees weren’t working in Clovis, they were available to help Glenn with the family’s fourth House of Juju location when it opened on Main Street in Visalia on July 13.

House of Juju first opened in Clovis a decade ago, doing a modern gourmet take on burgers and fries (or burgers and roasted fingerling potatoes, in this case). The restaurant expanded on to Pollasky Avenue in Old Town Clovis when Realty Concepts opened its new building in 2017.

The family also oversees resaurants in Morro Bay and in Orofino, Idaho, along with two “sister” restaurants in Clovis — Papa’s Place and On the Edge.

Glenn, in her glass-half full optimism, originally thought the Clovis restaurant could be open again in two weeks. After nearly two months, House of Juju is finally at the tail end of the reconstruction.

The hope is to reopen the week of Aug. 14, though it could be the week following: “We will be open in the month of August,” Glenn says.

It can’t happen soon enough.

Even with the other restaurants operating, having the Clovis spot closed for so long has taken its toll. Because House of Juju is more than the food. It’s about sharing love with people, Glenn says.

“Not being able to do that,” she says, “it’s been an emotional struggle.”