TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A longtime Tallahassee bar was forced to temporarily close and turn dozens of patrons away after a car drove into the building Sunday.
Tonight, we talked to the owners of Palace Saloon on Jackson Bluff Road to learn more about what they're calling a freak accident.
"I think it scared me so bad I didn't know what to think," said Karen McBride, a bartender at the business.
Karen McBride says she's still reliving that moment. Sunday afternoon, the only employee at Palace Saloon when:
"I hear this loud noise," said McBride. "Scares me to death and I'm turning around trying to figure it out. I think somebody has thrown something at the building."
Take a look at this video showing the moment it happened from inside the bar. In the lower left corner, you'll see debris and smoke coming into the building.
"I started shaking this morning, sitting at home, going, 'God, did that really happen?' they're like, 'Yeah, that really happened,'" said McBride.
"And I was like, 'oh, you're kidding, right, you know?" said Lora Lowe, who owns the Palace Saloon. "We've had a bad week, but this can't happen.' she's like, 'no, a truck just went through the building."
From the outside, it doesn't like a lot of damage, just a few wooden boards and some sandbags. But on the inside is a much different picture. You can see wood and cinderblock shattered all over the floor; and somehow, thankfully, no one was hurt.
"They put their chairs up, and they all sit," said Lowe. "They play pool, and they lean against the wall. Some of them would've been hurt."
Employees say they know the man behind the wheel and that he works for one of their vendors and the that the crash wasn't intentional.
"Accidents happened. It happened," said Lowe. "I feel for the guy, because he feels terrible."
A structural engineer surveyed the damage Monday morning, but there's no word yet on how much this will cost the business and its employees.
"I was shocked. I was pissed. I was...like, overwhelmed," Lowe confessed. "'Oh, my gosh. Where do we go from here?"
Still, the business is resilient and promises to rebound as soon as possible.
"My coworkers," said McBride. "We're going to be out of money for a little while, but...we'll be back."
The owner says the bar will reopen tonight, but will need to close again at some point to be fully repaired.
