​​CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — ​Running the kitchen is a dream come true for Eastside Grill and Pub’s head chef Joe Herrera.

“I’ve been working towards this ever since I started cooking 11 or 12 years ago,” Herrera said.

But how many chefs can say they helped build their kitchen?

When owners Steve and Linda Rohrbach opened the restaurant in 2018, it was to step towards having something of their own.

“It’s a little weird going into a restaurant or something and you get recognized a lot more. But it’s fun, it’s fun. We have a good group of people here,” Steve said.

But after managing to survive the pandemic, a kitchen fire destroyed almost everything.

“We have a good portion of our life savings sunk into this, and a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get things going. So it was devastating,” Steve said.

With contractors in short supply, Steve and Joe took it upon themselves to get things up and running again.

“It’s a lot of work. We came to work six days or seven days a week for a year and a half,” Steve explained.

“You’re going to make me live through that again. We built everything, from the tile on the floors to building the frame, the panels on the outside…” Herrera said.

And if the full house is any indication, all that hard work was worth it.

“It’s good to have them back and have a place to just walk down the road, listen to the music. So it’s just fun to have them here,” said Joanne Burley, from Crystal Beach.

“I see a lot of happy faces, and that makes me happy, too,” Linda said.

Now it’s more than just a place of business.

“I don’t have words to explain. Coming in here feels like home because I’ve spent so long here just rebuilding. I know what tile is where and which beam is where, everything,” Herrera said.