Sept. 22, 2025 8:15p
(WGTD)---Two Kenosha businesses with strong followings that were hit by fires in recent months are rebuilding, but the process is slow.
The city's License and Permit Committee found that out first hand Monday night when the owners of The Coffee Pot diner and Elsie Mae's Pies and Pints appeared before them asking for extensions of beer and liquor licenses. The requests were recommended for approval by the full council although both were tweaked.
The fire at the Coffee Pot in Kenosha's Harbor neighborhood occurred well over a year ago. The place isn't expected to fully reopen until January, according to co-owner Janice Barnhill. Barnhill and her contractor told the committee that the building's restoration was complicated by its age and by structural issues.
Meanwhile, Kelly Deem told the panel that demolition of the burned-out I-94 frontage road building that she had planned to open last May as Elsie Mae's Pies and Pints is expected to begin within days, clearing the way for a re-build.
Deem was looking for the committee to extend her beer and liquor license to cover a temporary structure that she planned to erect. The committee balked at approving anything longer than a 30-day extension in order to give her time to firm up her plans.
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