'Devastating’: Owners, community mourn loss of Cheers at Choto
Turn your eyes back toward the restaurant, though, and therein lies the nightmare: charred wood, a collapsed roof and debris with a stench that hangs in the air.
Owners Nick and Amy Batson saw the wreckage for themselves late last week, having already viewed the damage through videos and photos sent by neighbors, friends and employees.
The couple had been away in Hilton Head, South Carolina, looking to relax before a big weekend kicking off another summer at the restaurant they have owned since 2019.
Instead, they found out through a phone call at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 10, that their beloved hangout — known as Willy’s Bar and Grill under previous ownership — was engulfed in flames.
“I felt like I was waking up to a nightmare, like I was still asleep,” Nick Batson said of that morning. “It took a few minutes to process the call I had just received, saying the building was on fire, and I started receiving videos of it. It was just hard to believe. That’s not something you want to wake up to when you’re trying to relax and decompress. That’s why we went on vacation.”
“We were planning on being gone a couple of days to just regroup and get ready for the busy weekend,” Amy Batson added. “That is not what happened.”
Shortly after the Batsons were informed, Rural Metro firefighters arrived to find the two-story building consumed by flames. No one was in the building at the time, so there were no injuries. Moreover, the fire did not reach boat slips or fuel pumps, which could have made matters even worse.
But the building itself was deemed a total loss, according to multiple reports.
“The whole community saw the smoke, and everybody rushed down there,” Nick Batson said. “There was nothing they could do to put it out.”
The verdict brought an end to a place that had opened each year from April through November, welcoming regulars and new patrons with live music and a sense of community.
Boaters off the lake found their way there each summer, then college football fandom took hold in the fall.
“We were changing up our menu, ramping up for a good season,” added Cheers kitchen manager Jordan Baugh, who had worked at the restaurant since its opening in 2019. “Then all this happened.”
“The previous owners were absolutely devastated, too,” said Amy Batson, referring to Willy’s owners Chris and Tracy Malone. “We both had an emotional connection to the place. It’s just devastating for all involved.”
As firefighters moved around to assess the damage that morning, Baugh and
colleague Alissa Winkler —
a longtime server and
bartender — looked on from the parking lot.
Baugh said the restaurant had been open until around 9 p.m. the previous night, as regulars dined on favorites like Baja tacos and peel-n-eat shrimp.
The next day, he threw on some clothes and rushed back to a restaurant that had become his second home.
“We’ve had a few local businesses reach out about opportunities to place some of our staff if they need it,” Baugh said. “Nick and Amy have been like second parents to me since I’ve been here. I’ve had health problems, a lot of things happen that they have helped me through. Everyone is generally in a good mood when they’re here. It’s just a happy place for everyone. We’ve all meshed in this place and grown it into a family. It’s definitely heartbreaking to see this place the way it is right now.”
“They haven’t just been employees; they’ve been family, and they would come back every year because they love it,” Nick Batson added. “It’s just like extended family, and even with the regulars, Cheers really did have a following of, ‘Everybody knows your name.’ Everyone came in to see each other, and it was just a nice place to be.”
