Lundy’s to Reopen April 1, Six Months After SUV Hit Restaurant, Injuring a Pedestrian

Just more than six months after a SUV plowed into the front of Lundy's Home Cooking and trapped and injured a pedestrian, the downtown San Rafael eatery is set to reopen April 1.   

Meanwhile, Jean Wong, the owner of D’Lynnes Dancewear, two doors down from Lundy’s on Fourth Street, is still recovering from the accident — she was the person pinned underneath the older Chevy Blazer that slammed into the building on Sept. 20, 2012 when the weekly downtown farmers market was just beginning.  

The driver of the SUV, a 55-year-old El Sobrante resident who the Marin Independent Journal reported had a vendor’s booth at the farmers market, was making a U turn on Fourth Street when he mistakenly put the vehicle in the drive gear instead of reverse, according to San Rafael Police Spokesperson Margo Rohrbacher.

“The car shot forward over the curb and onto the sidewalk, striking the pedestrian,” she wrote in an e-mail. The driver was cited for driving on a sidewalk. Alcohol or drugs weren’t a factor in the crash.

Wong said she saw the SUV coming toward her. “I wanted to fly and I couldn’t,” she said.

Wong suffered from a broken shoulder, 17 fractured ribs, and seven fractures in her arm among several other injuries, she said. She had to be extricated from the crash and was rushed to Marin General Hospital.

“The nurse in the ER said my body was just crushed,” Wong said.

She remembers firemen telling her what to do as she was covered in a tarp to protect her from falling glass during her rescue, she said.

She was hospitalized for more than two months — transported from Marin General Hospital to Kaiser in San Rafael to Kaiser in Vallejo. “I came home around Thanksgiving, then went back for skilled care nursing,” she said.

Wong has been back at work for months but is still recovering from the horrific accident, she said. She has had regular surgeries — including a surgery last week — and has limited arm mobility, she said.

REPAIRS OPEN A CAN OF WORMS

The owners of the corner building that houses Lundy’s, at 1143 Fourth Street, said going through the city's building process to make the restaurant's repairs “opened a can of worms.”

Jim Milani, who owns the building with his two sisters, said they were required to make additional upgrades to the interior while fixing the Lundy's façade — including making the restaurant's entry ADA compliant.

Judy Milani, one of the building’s owners, said her great-grandfather and great-grandmother lived on the second floor of the 4,500-square-foot building and ran the Mulberry House Restaurant on the lower level. Today the building, which was built in 1883, includes Winton’s News and Liquors and offices on the second floor. Milani said her family considers the building, called the McDermott Buildling, the oldest wooden structure in the city.

Lundy’s owner Lupe Mercado said patrons can expect a familiar eatery when it reopens, with the same menu and all the same employees.

The Novato-based Design Build Specialist has been making the repairs at the restaurant. Dozens of people regularly stop by the restaurant every day while the construction has been underway to ask when the popular breakfast and lunch place will reopen, according to the company’s project manager. 

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