Olive Branch Café resumed carryout service just three days after the crash, but the dining room has remained closed while repairs were completed.
Six weeks after a car crashed into an Algiers restaurant, forcing it to close and undergo extensive repairs, Olive Branch Café is ready to welcome customers back.
Owner Russell Autry tells WWL Louisiana the Italian restaurant’s dining room will reopen for business on Monday, July 6, marking the end of an unexpected closure that began when a vehicle slammed through the front of the building in mid-May.
This story continues below.
The crash happened just before 3 p.m. along General De Gaulle Drive, when a car traveling at a high rate of speed lost control and crashed into the front of the restaurant. The crash left debris scattered throughout the dining room and forced the restaurant to close while crews repaired the damage.
“I could feel the building shake, and it was very loud,” Autry said after the crash.
Surveillance video captured the car veering off the roadway near a gas station before crashing through the restaurant’s entrance and coming to a stop inside the dining room. At the time, several customers and employees were inside.
“There were several customers dining in the restaurant that were literally just inches and feet away,” Autry said. “I had an employee that was very close to where the car stopped.”
Despite the significant damage, no serious injuries were reported. The driver, believed to be a woman in her 30s or 40s, was helped from the vehicle and taken to a hospital. She was later cited for reckless operation, according to an NOPD spokesperson. Police never publicly released a cause for the crash.
Olive Branch Café resumed carryout service just three days after the incident, but the dining room has remained closed while repairs were completed.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the free WWL-TV News app in the IOS App Store or Google Play.
