Penny's Pit reopening in Rathdrum

Rathdrum staple Penny’s Pit is back.

In May, Christina and Ryan Klundt closed Penny’s Pit. Between the everyday struggles of running a small restaurant, managing the Dashco next door, operating Penny’s Pit since 2013 and starting and raising a family, the burnout got to them.

“My son was always talking about how I was always gone,” Ryan said.

The Klundts couldn’t be kept away from business for long though and reopened Wednesday. 

In addition to being up for the challenge of running a business again, customer response played a large role in Penny’s Pit’s revival.

“Until the day we closed our doors, everyone was approaching us trying to buy it, wanting to take it over,” Christina said. “I sat back and saw all the social media (posts) and people we would run into in public. They were saying, ‘We can't find any good burgers. We miss you. We want you back.’ I just knew that we needed to reopen it.”

To keep up with demand and avoid the burnout that caused the initial closure, the Klundts are hiring additional staff.

“It was getting hard to do the prep, the cooking and all the other stuff,” Ryan said. “Now, I'm going to just stick with doing the prep. We're going to teach people how to cook the way we cook so the flavors still stay the same.”

The idea to reopen Penny’s Pit came in August, and with that, Ryan and Christina got to work renovating. Over the course of four weeks, they redid the floors, painted the walls, put up shelves to hold some throwback decor and crafted a new order counter by hand.

Penny’s Pit features a '50s and ‘60s theme with icons such as Audrey Hepburn, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe adorning the walls. The items came from a variety of places, including a few which were donated by customers.

“This James Dean one, she had had this for 20 years and she gave it to me,” Christina said. “Just a regular customer. Same with that Rat Pack one. A guy that used to own a thrift shop on Maine Street, he gave that to me.”

Menu item names are inspired by these entertainment figures of the past, such as burgers simply named Presley, Brando, Sinatra and John Wayne.

Even though it was only a few months the Klundts were away from Penny’s Pit, the hustle and bustle of lunch and dinner rushes was something the two missed.

“The constant busyness and always having something to do, I enjoy that because I'm the kind of person who can't just sit idle,” Ryan said. “When you’re hammered busy and in the weeds, you look back and you don't even realize three hours are gone.”

This time around, the Klundts feel they’ve learned from what caused them to lose their fire for Penny’s Pit and are ready to take the challenge head on.

“The restaurant is always going to be something that's in me,” Christina said. “As much as I may say I'm done or I'm tired of it, it's always going to be my passion."

  
  

    The walls of Penny's Pit feature '50s and '60s decor all over the walls.