Despite feeling like she was going to cry, Rhonda Palmeri, general manager of Cook’s Corner, steadied herself as she opened the door to the iconic biker roadhouse in Trabuco Canyon on Friday morning.
It was the first time daylight streamed through the doors into the bar since three people were killed and six more were wounded when a retired police officer walked inside and shot his estranged wife and others on Aug. 23.
Palmeri had announced the 11 a.m. soft opening on social media and a crowd of bikers and other community members gathered on the outdoor patio near a monument dedicated to Tanya Clark, 49, of Scottsdale, Arizona, John Leehey, 67, of Irvine, and Glen Sprowl Jr., 53, of Stanton, who died in the shooting.
Cook’s Corner had been closed since the mass shooting. But, as so often happens after a terrible tragedy, the place where the terror unfolded was also the place where people came to confront their feelings and begin healing.
“I almost had a nervous breakdown,” Palmeri said, tearing up. “I saw all those people and the media out there. You just don’t know what to say. We were all just hugging each other. A madman came in here and killed our friends. He had an agenda and nothing was going to stop him.”
Now, Palmeri’s goal was to bring some semblance of healing and calm to the popular biker bar and restaurant and focus on taking care of her staff of 16, who live paycheck-by-paycheck.
“All the employees wanted to open,” she said. “And all those who were here in the shooting will be working this weekend. It’s so beautiful that we’ve got so much support from the community.”
On Wednesday, Aug. 30, Palmeri said there was a closed meeting for victims, their families and for Cook’s staff to come and share their grief.
“We saged and smoked everything out,” she said of a ritual some of her staff had requested. “They are doing so much better than I thought.”
By noon on Friday, the line to order food stretched through…
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